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THE 

LIFE,    LETTERS,    AND    FRIENDSHIPS 

or 

RICHARD    MONCKTCXN"    MIUSTES, 

FIRST  LORD   HOUGHTON. 


THE 


LIFE,  LETTERS,  AND  FRIENDSHIPS 


or 


RICHARD  MONCKTON  MILNES 


FIRST  LORD  HOUGHTON. 


BY 

T.  WEMYSS  EEID. 


INTRODUCTION   BY 

RICHARD  HENRY  STODDARD. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES, 
VOL.  I. 


NEW  YORK: 
CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

104  &  106  FOURTH  AVENUE. 


COPYRIGHT,  1891,  BY 
CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 

All  rights  reserved. 


THE  MERSHON  COMPANY  PBBS8 
RJLHWAY,  N.  J. 


INTRODUCTION. 


No  English  writer  of  this  century,  or  of  any  century, 
ever  occupied  the  position,  either  in  the  world  of  let- 
ters or  the  social  world,  that  was  so  long  filled  by  Lord 
Houghton.  He  united  in  himself  the  diverse  person- 
alities of  the  poet,  the  politician,  and  the  man  of  the 
world,  and  if  not  as  eminent  in  either  of  these  char- 
acters as  some  of  his  contemporaries,  he  was  distin- 
guished in  all.  Fortunate  in  his  birth,  in  one  of  the 
stately  homes  of  England,  in  the  West  Riding  of 
Yorkshire ;  fortunate  in  his  parentage,  his  father  a 
wealthy  gentleman  of  good  family,  who  might  have 
attained  high  honors  in  political  life,  his  mother  the 
daughter  of  a  viscount ;  fortunate  in  his  education, 
which  was  obtained  at  Cambridge,  where  he  had  for 
his  fellow  collegians  young  men  of  genius  like  Frede- 
rick. Charles,  and  Alfred  Tennyson,  Arthur  Hallam, 
Thackeray,  Spedding,  and  others  who  have  since  en- 
riched the  literature  of  England ;  fortunate  in  his 

O  f 

temperament,  which  was  light  and  joyous,  and  in  his 
aims,  which  were  manly  and  intellectual, — there  was 
little  which  Richard  Monckton  Milnes  could  desire 
that  was  not  within  his  reach.  He  always  knew  what 
he  wanted  ;  he  took  a  just  measure  of  his  powers  and 
opportunities,  and,  as  far  as  man  may,  he  planned  his 
career  and  determined  his  destiny.  This,  for  a  poet, 
was  to  be  lord  of  himself,  and  to  find  that  self  not  a 


vi  INTRODUCTION. 

heritage  of  woe.  Possessed  with  an  insatiate  thirst  for 
knowledge,  a  great  reader  in  many  directions  rather 
than  a  close  student  in  any  one  direction,  the  bent  of 
his  mind  while  at  college  was  clearly  toward  poetry, 
concerning  which  his  judgment  was  a  singularly  inde- 
pendent one.  He  refused,  for  instance,  to  acknowledge 
the  sovereignty  of  Byron,  who,  dying  a  few  years  be- 
fore, was  still  reckoned  the  grand  Napoleon  of  the 
realm  of  rhyme,  proclaiming  in  its  stead  the  supremacy 
of  Wordsworth,  which  was  hotly  contested,  and  the 
glorious  gifts  of  Shelley,  who  was  almost  unknown  to 
his  stolid  countrymen.  More  than  a  half  century  has 
passed  since  this  contention  between  the  admirers  of 
Byron  and  Wordsworth  was  begun  by  Milnes  and  his 
friends  at  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  and  the  contention 
is  not  yet  ended.  The  Wordsworthians  have  had  the 
best  of  the  argument  on  paper,  but  they  have  not  suc- 
ceeded in  convincing  the  world  that  their  idol  is  the 
better  poet ;  for  there  is  that  in  the  impassioned  genius 
of  Byron,  and  his  impulsive  bursts  of  feeling,  before 
which  the  reflective  mind  of  Wordsworth,  and  his 
studied  utterance  of  philosophical  didacticism,  pale 
their  ineffectual  fires.  It  is  not  a  question  of  morality 
with  which  the  world  concerns  itself  in  comparing 
these  poets,  but  the  question  of  poetry ;  and,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  the  world  prefers  the  poetry  of  Byron  to  the 
poetry  of  Wordsworth.  Differing  from  both,  Lord 
Houghton  may  be  said  to  have  resembled  Byron  in  his 
fondness  for  travel,  and  to  have  resembled  Wordsworth 
in  the  activity  of  his  interest  in  the  events  of  his  time. 
Like  the  young  English  gentleman  of  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  this  young  English  gentleman  of  the  reign 


INTRODUCTION.  vii 

of  Victoria  was  not  content  until  lie  had  made  his  tour 
abroad.  With  affections  that  centered  in  his  family 
and  his  friends,  and  a  disposition  that  was  neither  dis- 
satisfied with  itself  nor  his  country,  the  spirit  in  his 
feet  was  not  the  errant  and  fugitive  spirit  that  impelled 
the  author  of  "  Childe  Harold  "  to  make  his  memorable 
pilgrimage,  but  the  happy,  healthful  spirit  of  a  scholar 
and  a  poet,  who  was  fain  to  see  places  which  had  be- 
come classic  ground  to  him  through  his  reading,  and  to 
mix  among  peoples  with  whose  history  he  was  familiar. 
He  journeyed  and  resided  in  France,  in  Italy,  in  Ger- 
many, in  Greece,  in  Turkey,  and  wherever  he 'went  he 
was  at  home;  for,  true  born  Englishman  though  he 
was,  he  was  everywhere  a  citizen  of  the  world.  No 
traveled  Englishman  ever  understood  the  different 
peoples  among  whom  he  sojourned  so  well  as  Lord 
Houghton,  who  thoroughly  appreciated  their  national 
life  and  character,  and  their  relations  with  other 
peoples,  and  long  before  his  death  he  might  justly  have 
declared  of  himself, 

I  am  become  a  name  : 
For,  always  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart, 
Much  have  I  seen  and  known  ;  cities  of  men 
And  manners,  climates,  councils,  governments, 
Myself  not  least,  but  honored  of  them  all. 

What  Lord  Houghton  was  as  a  traveler  and  a  corre- 
spondent of  illustrious  men  abroad  this  Life  shows, 
and  it  was  much.  But  what  he  was  when,  his  travels 
practically  over,  he  returned,  and  was  elected  M.P.  for 
Pontefract,  was  more ;  for  that  brought  him  promi- 
nently before  and  constantly  among  his  own  country- 
men, to  whom  he  was  a  celebrity.  The  difference 


via  INTRODUCTION. 

between  American  and  English  society  unfits  us  to  a 
certain  extent  for  a  perfect  understanding  of  the  posi- 
tion which  Lord  Houghton  held  in  English  society 
for  years,  and  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held. 
Traveler,  poet,  politician,  he  was  before  all  a  man  of 
society,  to  which  he  wras  drawn  by  his  vivacious  tem- 
perament, his  love  of  enjoyment,  his  intellectual  ambi- 
tion, and  his  talent  as  a  talker.  Endowed  with 
self-possession,  with  confidence  in  his  abilities,  and  with 
the  courage  of  his  convictions,  he  was  addicted  to  par- 
adox, and  prone,  no  doubt,  to  maintaining  opinions 
which  he,  did  not  seriously  believe.  It  delighted  him 
to  startle  people  more  than  it  delighted  the  people 
whom  he  startled.  Coming  upon  the  scene  when  the 
older  poets  were  passing  away,  he  succeeded  the  oldest, 
Rogers,  as  the  literary  host  of  the  time.  Other  hosts 
there  were,  at  Lansdowne  Terrace,  Holland  House, 
Gore  House,  but  none  who  was  more  hospitable  than 
the  bustling  gentleman  who  gave  breakfast  at  his 
bachelor  rooms  on  Pall  Mall,  and  who,  after  his  mar- 
riage, invited  his  friends  to  visit  him  at  his  old  family 
home  at  Fryston.  Everybody  who  was  anybody  was 
to  be  found  at  these  breakfasts,  and  many  who  were 
nobodies,  in  a  curious  way.  To  have  done  something, 
no  matter  what,  insured  an  invitation  to  the  breakf asts 
of  Lord  Houghton.  He  enjoyed  entertaining  his 
guests,  and  his  guests  enjoyed  him  as  well  as  his  enter- 
tainments, he  was  so  courteous  and  so  brilliant,  so 
kindly  and  so  generous.  To  be  in  need  was  to  be 
helped  by  him, — not  merely  with  money,  which  he 
could  probably  spare,  but  with  what  is  rarer, — with 
sympathy,  with  considerate  advice,  and  with  brotherly 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

or  fatherly  solicitude  and  protection.  What  he  did 
for  poor  Hood,  in  his  last  days,  we  know  now  for  the 
first  time;  what  he  did  for  poorer  David  Gray  we 
knew  years  ago  when  we  read  the  memoir  of  that  daft 
creature  whom  it  was  almost  impossible  to  aid.  That 
Lord  Houghton  had  a  tender  heart  and  a  ready  hand 
was  known  to  all  who  knew  him,  and  was  shown  over 
and  over  again  by  his  unremembered  acts  of  kindness 
and  of  love. 

Lord  Houghton  is  certain  to  have  a  permanent  place 
among  British  authors  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but 
precisely  what  place  posterity  alone  can  determine. 
He  can  hardly  be  forgotten  as  the  biographer  of  Keats, 
from  whose  memory  he  was  the  first  to  remove  the 
clouds  of  misrepresentation  which  had  so  long  obscured 
it,  and  whose  inherent  manhood  he  was  the  first  to 
maintain,  nor  hardly  forgotten  as  the  author  of  a 
volume  of  personal  "  Monographs,"  which  is  a  model  of 
that  kind  of  writing.  He  ought  to  live,  and,  no  doubt, 
will  live,  as  a  poet, — not  a  great  poet,  for  great  poets 
are  rare  at  all  times,  but  a  gentle  and  thoughtful  poet, 
to  whom  the  subdued  expression  of  pensive  feeling 
was  better  than  the  stormy  voice  of  passion,  and  who, 
singing  with  scholarly  sweetness  of  Greece,  of  Italy,  of 
the  Orient,  sang  with  more  gracious  sweetness,  more 
philosophic  experience,  and  more  spiritual  pathos,  of 
the  heart  and  soul, — of  life  and  death.  No  one  who 
has  once  read  will  ever  willingly  forget  "  The  Flight  of 
Youth,"  "Love  and  Nature,"  " Familiar  Love,"  "Half 
Truth,"  "The  Men  of  Old,"  and  that  touching  little 
song,  "  I  Wandered  by  the  Brookside."  His  poems  of 
reflection  are  better  than  those  of  Matthew  Arnold, 


x  INTRODUCTION. 

which  were  modeled  after  them,  and  full  as  good  as 
those  of  Wordsworth,  which  they  surpass  in  melody 
and  sincerity. 

This  much  by  way  of  prologue  to  this  Life  of  Lord 
Houghton,  from  which  I  will  no  longer  detain  the 
reader  of  this  imperfect  tribute  to  his.  memory,  who,  I 
am  sure,  will  be  as  much  delighted  with  it  as  I  have 
been. 

R  H.  STODDARD. 
THE  CENTURY, 
NEW  YORK,  January  10,  1891. 


PREFACE. 


No  apology  is  needed  for  the  appearance  of  a  biography 
of  such  a  man  as  Lord  Houghton.  For  more  than  half 
a  century  Monckton  Milnes  was  one  of  the  conspicuous 
figures  in  European  society,  and  during  the  whole  of  that 
long  period  he  played  a  distinctive  part  in  contemporary 
life.  Eecognised  so  far  back  as  the  beginning  of  the 
present  reign  as  one  of  the  ornaments  of  English  society, 
a  wit  and  a  humorist  who  could  hold  his  own  among 
the  best  men  and  women  of  his  time,  he  quickly  secured 
recognition  for  other  and  more  sterling  qualities.  His 
poetry  gained  the  ear  of  the  public,  even  though  Tenny- 
son was  one  of  his  contemporaries ;  his  prose-writing — 
though  lacking  in  that  continuous  effort  which  is  now- 
a-days  essential  to  permanent  fame — charmed  his  own 
generation,  and  must  long  remain  a  delight  to  all  lovers 
of  good  English.  His  political  career,  though  it  failed  to 
satisfy  both  his  own  aspirations  and  the  hopes  of  his 
friends,  was  brightened  by  one  notable  and  unselfish 
triumph,  his  share  in  the  establishment  of  reformatories 
for  children  who  had  been  born  or  driven  by  force  of 
circumstances  into  the  criminal  classes.  But  of  far 
greater  interest  and  importance  than  his  achievements 


rii  PREFACB. 

as  poet,  critic,  and  legislator,  was  the  part  which  he 
played  in  English  social  life.  The  influence  he  wielded 
for  more  than  fifty  years  was  due  in  some  measure  to 
the  extraordinary  number  and  variety  of  his  friend- 
ships ;  but  still  more  largely  was  it  attributable  to  the 
genuine  and  remarkable  qualities  of  the  man  himself. 

In  these  pages  it  is  the  purpose  of  his  biographer 
to  throw  some  light  upon  the  friendships  which  have 
long  surrounded  Lord  Houghton's  name  with  a  halo  of 
romance.  They  include  the  names  of  many  of  the  most 
eminent  men  and  women  of  the  century.  The  man  who 
had  known  Wordsworth  and  Landor  and  Sydney  Smith ; 
who  during  the  greater  part  of  his  life  had  been  the 
friend,  trusted  and  well-beloved,  of  Tennyson,  Carlyle, 
and  Thackeray,  was  also  one  of  the  first  to  hail  the 
rising  genius  of  Swinburne,  and  to  lend  a  helping  hand 
to  other  great  writers  of  a  still  younger  generation. 
Nor  were  his  friendships  confined  to  the  literary  world. 
The  Miss  Berrys,  who  had  known  Horace  Walpole  in 
their  youth,  knew  and  loved  Monckton  Milnes  in  their 
old  age.  Among  statesmen  he  had  been  the  friend  of 
Vassall  Holland,  Melbourne,  Peel,  and  Palmerston,  in 
the  heyday  of  their  fame ;  he  had  first  seen  Mr.  Gladstone 
as  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford ;  had  been  the  associate  of 
Mr.  Disraeli  when  he  was  still  only  the  social  aspirant  of 
Gore  House ;  had  been  the  confidant  of  Louis  Napoleon 
before  he  was  a  prisoner  at  Ham,  and  had  known  Louis 
Philippe,  Thiers,  Guizot,  and  Lamartine,  alike  in  their 
days  of  triumph  and  defeat.  Lamennais,  Wiseman, 
Edward  Irving,  Connop  Thirlwall,  and  Frederick  Maurice 


PREFACE.  riii 

had  all  influenced  his  mind  in  his  youth ;  he  had  "  laid 
the  first  plank  of  a  kind  of  pulpit "  from  which  Emerson 
could  preach  "throughout  all  Saxondom,"  *  and  he  had 
recognised  the  noble  character  and  brilliant  qualities  of 
Miss  Nightingale  long  before  the  world  had  heard  her 
name.  These  were  but  a  few  of  the  friendships  of 
Monckton  Milnes ;  and  the  reader  of  these  pages  will 
learn  that,  great  as  the  interest  of  such  friendships  must 
necessarily  be,  they  did  not  suffice  to  absorb  his  affections. 
No  mistake  could  have  been  more  complete  than  that 
of  supposing  that  he  cared  only  for  the  great  and  the 
famous.  The  richest  outpourings  of  his  heart  and  mind 
were  in  many  cases  reserved  for  men  of  whom  the  world 
knew  little  or  nothing.  He  delighted  in  making  the 
acquaintance  of  all  those  who  were  playing  a  leading 
part  upon  the  stage  of  the  day;  but  his  truest  friend- 
ships were  often  with  those  whom  fame  had  never  reached, 
nor  success  gladdened.  And  it  was  no  common  blessing 
which  followed  the  friendship  of  Milnes  for  those  who 
enjoyed  it.  Where  he  loved  at  all;  he  loved  with  all 
his  heart;  and  the  greatest  happiness  he  knew  was  in 
helping  his  friends — a  work  in  which  he  never  grew 
weary,  never  slackened  his  hand,  from  the  days  of  early 
manhood  to  those  of  feeble  old  age. 

His  biographer  has  sought  to  make  many  of  these 
friendships  tell  their  own  story  in  the  letters  of  Milnes. 
Of  some  of  the  most  interesting  of  them  no  record 
remains ;  whilst  of  others  only  a  chance  word  here  and 

f  Carlyle, 


xiv  PREFACE. 

there  reminds  us  of  the  fact  of  their  existence.  But  the 
reader  will  find  enough  in  these  pages  to  convince  him 
that  the  claim  set  forth  in  these  introductory  lines  is 
amply  justified. 

To  the  character  of  Monckton  Milnes  it  is  doubtful 
if  anyone  can  do  full  justice.  It  had  so  many  sides,  was 
so  quaintly  coloured,  and  at  times  distorted,  by  his  love 
of  paradox,  flashed  so  constantly  in  new  lights  and  under 
varying  aspects,  had  fe  changeful  iridescence  so  entirely 
its  own,  that  no  ordinary  biographer  can  hope  to  succeed 
in  portraying  it  fully.  But  here  again  the  reader  must 
draw  his  final  conclusions  from  two  sources — the  letters 
of  Milnes  himself,  covering  the  whole  period  of  his  life ; 
and  the  estimate  formed  of  him  by  those  who  knew  him 
best.  He  will  learn  from  the  evidence  thus  set  before 
him,  that  the  man  who  in  his  later  life  was  known 
throughout  the  world  as  the  liberal  friend  and  bene- 
factor of  men  of  genius  in  distress,  had,  at  the  outset  of 
his  London  life,  brightened  the  gloomy  fate-burdened 
soul  of  Carlyle,  as  David  cheered  the  heart  of  Saul.  He 
will  see  how  the  best  men  everywhere  loved  him,  trusted 
him,  clung  to  him;  and  he  must  be  a  poor  judge  of 
character  who,  in  such  circumstances,  can  labour  under 
any  doubt  as  to  the  entire  worthiness  of  the  man 
who  was  thus  cherished  and  honoured  in  so  high  a 
degree. 

Not  long  before  his  death  Milnes  wrote  the  following 
lines  in  a  copy  of  his  poems,  telling  the  lady  to  whom 
the  book  belonged  that  they  formed  the  "  text "  of  his 
life.  He  had  composed  them  in  his  youth : — - 


PREFACE.  arv 

AFTER  GOETHE. 

Demand  not  by  what  road  or  portal 

Into  God's  City  thou  art  come — 
But  where  thou  tak'st  thy  place  as  mortal 

Remain  in  peace,  and  make  thy  home. 
Then  look  around  thee  for  the  Wise, 

Look  for  the  Strong  who  there  command; 
Let  Wisdom  teach  thee  what  to  prize, 

Let  Power  direct  and  brace  thy  hand. 
Then,  doing  all  that  should  be  done, 

Labour  to  make  the  State  approve  thee, 
And  thou  shalt  earn  the  hate  of  none, 

And  many  will  rejoice  to  love  thee. 

HOUGHTON. 

Rome,  Jan.,  1885. 

Possibly,  in  some  quarters,  there  may  be  disappoint- 
ment at  the  fact  that  these  pages  show  the  more  serious 
side  of  Milnes's  character.  The  other  side  could  only  be 
concealed  from  the  reader  at  the  expense  of  the  truthful- 
ness of  the  portrait.  But  there  would  be  just  as  great 
a  sacrifice  of  truth  if  the  superficial  oddities  and  ec- 
centricities of  his  manner  and  character  were  allowed 
to  hide  the  real  meaning  and  substance  of  his  life  as  a 
whole.  It  is  the  real  Milnes  whom  his  biographer  has 
tried  to  paint  in  these  pages  ;  not  the  outward  Milnes, 
as  he  appeared  to  those  who  saw  him  only  at  a  distance — 
the  hero  of  a  hundred  more  or  less  apocryphal  legends; 
the  wit  upon  whom  a  thousand  jokes  he  had  never 
uttered  were  fathered;  the  man  of  fashion  whose 
unconventional  originality  had  so  ,far  impressed  itself 
upon  the  popular  mind  that  there  was  hardly  any 


xvi  PREFACE. 

eccentricity  too  audacious  to  be  attributed  to  him  by 
tbose  who  knew  him  only  by  repute.  His  curious 
disregard  of  the  commonplace  and  the  conventional, 
alike  in  manner  and  in  speech,  ought  not  to  be  forgotten. 
It  was,  indeed,  the  first  characteristic  of  his  which 
caught  the  attention  of  the  public.  Even  Carlyle,  in 
the  earliest  stage  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  man 
he  learned  to  love  so  well,  was  oddly  impressed  by 
his  outward  bearing.  "  Milnes  is  a  Tory  Member  of 
Parliament ;  think  of  that !  "  he  writes  to  Emerson  in 
1840.  "  For  the  rest,  he  describes  his  religion  in  these 
terms :  '  I  profess  to  be  a  Crypto-Catholic.'  Conceive 
the  man !  A  most  bland-smiling,  semi- quizzical,  affec- 
tionate, high-bred,  Italianised  little  man,  who  has  long 
olive-blonde  hair,  a  dimple,  next  to  no  chin,  and  flings 
his  arm  round  your  neck  when  he  addresses  you 
in  public  society ! "  That  was  the  first  impression 
which  Milnes,  in  those  days  of  his  brilliant  youth, 
made  upon  Carlyle.  How  differently  he  impressed  him 
as  the  years  passed  by,  and  the  true  nature  of  the  man 
was  revealed,  will  be  seen  by  those  who  read  these 
pages.  But  if  even  Carlyle  was  in  the  first  instance 
struck  by  Milnes's  oddities  of  speech  and  manner,  what 
wonder  is  it  that  upon  the  rest  of  the  world  they  made 
so  deep  an  impression  !  Yet,  whilst  they  cannot  be  left 
out  of  sight,  it  is  not  upon  these  things  that  the  final 
judgment  passed  on  Monckton  Milnes  by  his  fellow-men 
will  be  based.  For  him  also  can  be  set  forth  the  claim 
— so  often  granted  in  the  case  of  those  whose  harsh 
and  forbidding  exterior  has  done  cruel  injustice  to  the 


PREFACE.  xv  11 

sweetness  of  the  spirit  it  concealed — that  his  soul  shall 
be  judged  by  what  it  was,  and  not  by  its  environments 
These  environments,  it  is  true,  were  in  his  case  the  ven 
reverse  of  harsh  and  forbidding ;  yet,  in  some  respects, 
they  could  hardly  have  been  less  truthful  as  an  index  to 
the  character  of  the  man  himself  if  the  opposite  had 
been  the  case.  The  buoyant  gaiety  of  spirit,  the  careless 
grace  of  manner,  the  almost  audacious  disregard  of  old 
canons  of  social  usage,  did  for  Milnes  what  hard  reserve, 
gloom  of  temperament,  and  that  morbid  shyness  which 
is  so  often  aggressive  in  its  form,  have  done  for  others. 
They  concealed  the  real  man  from  the^  superficial 
observer.  In  these  pages,  whilst  the  outward  man  has 
been  sketched,  it  is  the  inner  and  the  true  man  who  is 
placed  most  prominently  before  the  reader. 

The  heart  of  the  biographer  knows  its  own  bitter- 
ness. It  has  been  no  light  task  to  select  from  some 
thirty  thousand  letters  addressed  to  Milnes  by  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  people,  those  which  were  suitable  for 
publication  in  this  work.  The  selection  which  has  been 
made  is  small  indeed,  compared  with  the  bulk  from 
which  it  is  taken;  and  it  is  hoped  that  no  letter  has 
been  printed  here  which  can  cause  needless  pain  to  any- 
one. It  has  been  still  more  difficult  to  trace  the  record 
of  Milnes 's  own  life  by  means  of  his  letters  to  others. 
For  though  he  corresponded  with  many,  he  wrote — 
especially  in  his  later  years — regularly  to  but  few,  and 
these  he  addressed  as  a  rule  in  the  briefest  terms.  It 
has  consequently  been  hard  to  keep  track  of  him 
throughout  his  brilliant  and  varied  life ;  and  there  are 


xviii  PREFACE. 

many  gaps  in  this  narrative  which  could  have  been  filled 
up  by  no  one  but  himself.  It  has  been  something  for 
his  biographer  to  have  enjoyed  for  nearly  twenty  years 
the  privilege  of  his  personal  friendship.  Without  the 
knowledge  and  strength  derived  from  this  fact,  the  task 
he  has  here  attempted  to  perform  would  have  been  an 
impossible  one.  To  Lord  Houghton's  family  he  is 
indebted,  not  only  for  the  confidence  which  they  have 
reposed  in  him,  but  for  much  valuable  assistance  in 
the  preparation  of  the  biography.  From  the  Dowager 
Viscountess  Galway  he  has  received  constant  and  most 
useful  aid;  whilst  amongst  many  to  whom  he  is  in- 
debted for  Kelp,  or  for  permission  to  publish  the  letters 
printed  in  these  volumes,  he  must  make  special  mention 
of  Lord  Tennyson,  Lord  Acton,  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr. 
Aubrey  de  Vere,  Mr.  George  von  Bunsen,  and  Mrs. 
Henry  Bright.  To  Mr.  A.  E.  Scanes  he  has  been  in- 
debted for  the  admirable  manner  in  which  the  great 
mass  of  Lord  Houghton's  correspondence,  entrusted  to 
that  gentleman  shortly  after  Lord  Houghton's  death, 
was  classified  and  catalogued.  Finally,  he  must  say 
for  himself  that,  conscious  as  he  is  of  the  deficiencies 
and  imperfections  of  this  narrative,  he  can  at  least 
claim  for  it  that  its  preparation  has  been  a  labour  of 
love.  All  through  the  work  of  two  arduous  years  he 
has  been  sustained  by  the  desire  to  repay  so  far  as  he 
could  the  debt  of  gratitude  he  owes  to  the  kindest  and 
truest  of  friends. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

MSB 

PARENTAGE   AND   BIRTH. 

The  Mflneses  of  Wakefield — Family  Descent — Robert  Pemberton  Milnes 
— His  Parliamentary  Career — Marriage — Birth  of  Richard  Monckton 
Milnes— Offer  of  Cabinet  Office  to  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes — Journey 
to  Paris  in  1814— Visit  to  Waterloo,  1815 —  Character— Refusal  of 
Peerage 1 

CHAPTER   H. 
EARLY     YEARS. 

The  Character  of  Monckton  Milnes — School-days — Cambridge— Great 
Contemporaries — The  Union — Ascent  in  a  Balloon — Deputation  of  the 
Union  to  Oxford — Meeting  with  W.  E.  Gladstone — College  Friend- 
ships— Arthur  Hallam,  Alfred  Tennyson,  Sunderland — The  Apostles  .  44 

CHAPTER    ITL 
LONDON   AND   ITALY. 

London  University — Letters  to  his  Father — Attends  the  House  of  Com- 
mons— Goes  to  Bonn — Life  at  Milan — Perplexities  of  Life — Venice— 
Visits  Ireland — Aubrey  de  Vere's  Reminiscences — Rome— Wiseman 
— Met  ts  Charles  MacCarthy — Projected  Greek  Tour  ....  85 

CHAPTER   IV. 
GREECE   AND  POETRY. 

Tour  in  Greece  with  Wordsworth — Winter  in  Venice — Family  Affairs- 
Illness  at  Florence — Walter  Savage  Landor — Death  of  Arthur  Hallam 
— Letter  from  Alfred  Tennyson — Publication  of  First  Book — A 
Carnival  in  Rome — Return  of  the  Family  to  England — Wiseman — 
Connop  Thirlwall  .,..,,....  128 


xx  CONTENTS. 

CHATTER   V. 

ENTRANCE   UPON   LONDON   LIFE. 

PAOB 

Begins  his  London  Career— Society  in  1836 — Milnes's  Italian  Manners — 
"  The  Beating  of  my  own  Heart " — "  The  Tribute  " — Correspondence 
•with  Tennyson — Lansdowne,  Holland,  and  Gore  Houses — Rogers's 
Breakfasts — The  Art  of  Conversation — Takes  Chambers  in  Pall 
Mall — Carlyle — Illness  of  Miss  Milnes — W.  E.  Gladstone — Milnes 
returned  to  Parliament — Disraeli's  Maiden  Speech — Publishes  Two 
Volumes  of  Poetry — Correspondence  with  Sydney  Smith  .  .  .  166 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FIRST   TEARS   IN   PARLIAMENT. 

Disraeli  and  Milnes — Carlyle's  Lectures — The  Sterling  Club — Charles 
Sumner  —  R.  W.  Emerson  —  Letter  from  Wordsworth — Growing 
Friendship  with  Carlyle — Visit  to  the  Pyrenees — The  London  Library 
established  —  Reviews  Emerson's  Writings — A  Glimpse  of  Beau 
Brummel— Milnes  in  Paris — Friendship  with  the  King,  Guizot, 
Thiers,  Lamartine,  and  De  Tocqueville — Correspondence  with  Sir 
Robert  Peel — Heine — Carlyle  at  Fryston — "  One  Tract  More  " — 
Thackeray  in  Yorkshire — The  New  Administration — Milnes  disap- 
pointed— Letter  to  Guizot .216 


CHAPTER   VIE. 
JOURNEY  TO  THE  EAST. 

The  Copyright  Question — The  Corn  Laws — The  Queen's  Ball — Journey  to 
the  East— Correspondence  with  Peel — His  Friendship  with  MacCarthy 
— Tennyson's  Pension — Carlyle  and  Milnes — Southey's  Widow — 
Charles  Buller — Milnes's  Position  in  Parliament — Correspondence 
with  W.  E.  Gladstone 273 


CHAPTER  VHL 

POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY    LIFE. 

"  Palm  Leaves  "  —  Reviewing  Disraeli  —  Maynooth  — Wordsworth  and 
Milnes — Letter  from  De  Tocqueville — Thomas  Campbell — Relations 
of  England  and  France — Disraeli  at  Fryston — His  Sketch  of  Milnes 
— Milnes  visits  Berlin— Extracts  from  Commonplace  Book — Assists 
Thomas  Hood — A  Political  Storm — Another  Disappointment  .  318 


CONTENTS.  xxi 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CHANGE   OF   VIEWS. 

PAGl 

The  Crisis  of  Protection — Letter  to  Guizot — Peel's  Retirement— Milnes 
joins  the  Liberal  Party — Death  of  his  Mother — Letter  from  Robert 
Browning — Carlyle  in  Yorkshire — W.  E.  Forster — Friendship  with 
the  Duke  of  Wellington — A  Characteristic  Letter — Visit  to  the 
Peninsula— Withdrawal  from  the  Carlton  Club—"  Events  of  1848  " 
— Dispute  with  Mr.  George  Smythe — Challenges  Him — Extracts  from 
Commonplace  Book — Louis  Philippe  and  Milnes — Lord  Malmesbury's 
Misstatement 366 

CHAPTER    X. 
MARRIAGE. 

Thackeray — "  Going  to  see  a  Man  Hanged  " — Charlotte  Bronte  in  London 
— Milnes  in  Paris — Dines  -with  Louis  Napoleon — Sayings  of  Carlyle — 
Accident  to  Rogers — Death  of  Sir  Robert  Peel — The  Papal  Aggression 
— Engagement  to  Miss  Crewe — Friendship  with  the  Palmerstons — 
Marriage — Wedding-Trip — Fryston  Described — Its  Many  Visitors — 
Death  of  Eliot  Warburton— 16,  Upper  Brook  Street — Hospitalities — 
Friendship  with  Miss  Nightingale — Correspondence  with  Mrs.  Gaskell  426 

CHAPTER   XI. 
CEIMEAN  WAR  DATS. 

Married  Life — Visit  to  Ireland — The  Eastern  Question — Correspondence 
with  Lady  Palmerston — A  Round  of  Visits — the  Crimean  War — The 
Times  Account  of  the  Battle  of  the  Alma — The  Peelitas — A  Ministerial 
Crisis  —  Milnes  declines  Office  —  Miss  Nightingale  in  the  East  — 
Harriet  Martineau — Death  of  Charlotte  Bronte — Paris  and  Vichy — 
Lines  on  Scutari  —  The  British  Association  at  Glasgow  —  Visit  to 
Hawarden — Peerage  offered  to  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  .  .  .  482 


THE 

LIFE  OF  LORD  HOUGHTOK 

CHAPTEE    I. 

PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH. 

The  Milneses  of  Wakefield — Family  Descent — Robert  Pemberton  Milnes — His 
Parliamentary  Career — Marriage — Birth  of  Richard  Monckton  Milnes  — 
Offer  of  Cabinet  Office  to  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes — Journey  to  Paris  in  1814 
— Visit  to  Waterloo,  1815— Character — Refusal  of  Peerage. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  the  pleasant 
town  of  Wakefield  was  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
centres  of  commerce  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire. 
At  that  time  it  disputed  with  the  neighbouring  town  of 
Leeds  the  pre-eminence  in  the  woollen  and  cloth  trades, 
and  was  specially  noted  for  the  extent  of  the  business 
which  its  manufacturers  and  merchants  carried  on  direct 
with  Eussia.  No  English  industry  is  older  than  the 
manufacture  of  cloth,  and  none  has  more  completely 
changed  its  conditions  within  a  comparatively  recent 
period.  Down  to  a  time  still  within  the  memory  of 
man,  the  cloth  for  which  the  West  Eiding  has  long 
been  famous  was  woven  not  in  huge  mills  placed  in 
the  centre  of  crowded  towns,  but  in  the  cottages  of  the 
weavers  themselves,  a  hardy  and  skilful  race  of  artisans, 


2  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGSTON. 

who  did  not  care  to  herd  together  in  populous  cities,  but 
who  fixed  their  homes  in  one  or  other  of  the  many 
pleasant  villages  which  were  to  be  found  on  the  banks 
of  the  Aire,  the  Calder,  and  the  other  streams  of  the 
West  Riding,  before  the  days  when  the  introduction 
of  steam  had  converted  the  whole  of  that  prosperous 
district  into  the  semblance  of  a  vast  manufactory. 
It  followed  from  this  fact  that,  in  the  West  Riding,  at 
all  events,  nothing  was  then  to  be  found  which  bore  the 
faintest  resemblance  to  a  manufacturing  city  such  as 
we  are  now  familiar  with.  In  the  town  centres  of  the 
cloth  trade  resided  the  wealthy  merchants,  who  sent  the 
goods  which  formed  the  staple  industry  of  the  place  to 
London  or  to  those  foreign  countries  which  depended 
upon  English  woollens  for  their  clothing ;  but  no 
manufactures  were  carried  on  in  these  towns.  Weavers 
came  to  them  once  a  week  with  the  "  piece  "  which  they 
had  woven  in  their  own  cottage  homes,  and  a  market 
was  held,  where  this  homespun  material  was  displayed 
for  sale.  The  merchants  came  and  bought  according  to 
their  needs;  the  weaver  took  his  modest  pay  and  re- 
turned to  his  hamlet  and  his  shuttle,  whilst  the  capital- 
ist, who  was  his  only  customer,  added  the  small  length  of 
cloth  which  he  had  purchased  to  the  stock  accumulating 
in  his  warehouse.  From  thence  at  uncertain  intervals 
the  lumbering  waggons  carried  heavy  bales  of  cloth, 
the  produce  of  a  hundred  different  looms,  up  to  the 
great  capital  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  or  down  to 
the  chief  Yorkshire  port  on  the  Humber.  It  was  ail 
easy  and  pleasant  mode  of  carrying  on  a  trade,  and  in 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  3 

the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  it  was  one  by 
means  of  which  not  a  few  great  fortunes  were  accumu- 
lated. 

Throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  cloth  trade  of  Wakefield  had  become  something 
very  like  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  a  single  family. 
This  was  the  family  of  the  Milneses.  They  had  sprung 
from  the  dales  of  Derbyshire,  where  for  many  genera- 
tions they  appear  to  have  led  the  lives  of  substantial 
country  gentlemen.  They  were  of  ancient  descent, 
and  they  had  acquired  considerable  landed  property 
in  Derbyshire,  some  of  which  still  remains  in  their 
hands.  Somewhere  about  the  year  1670,  fortune 
directed  the  steps  of  one  of  the  Milneses  to  the  West 
Riding ;  and  settling  at  Wakefield,  he  there  laid  the 
foundation  of  more  than  one  considerable  fortune.  It 
is  needless  to  follow  minutely  the  history  of  the 
different  branches  into  which  the  Milnes  family,  as  it 
increased  in  numbers,  became  divided.  Its  position  in 
Wakefield  was,  however,  so  unique,  and  is  so  thoroughly 
characteristic  of  one  of  the  features  of  English  life  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  that  it  deserves  to  be  described 
at  length.  The  best  evidence  of  the  nature  of  that 
position  is  to  be  found  in  certain  old  houses  which 
still  stand  at  Wakefield,  and  which,  about  the  year 
1750,  were  the  residences  of  different  members  of  the 
family.  These  houses  wear  even  now  an  air  of  import- 
ance, which  to-day  looks  strangely  out  of  place  in  the 
midst  of  the  crowded  streets  of  a  second-rate  country 
town.  Some  of  them  had  considerable  architectural 


4  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

pretensions;  all  were  large,  substantial,  and  well  ordered ; 
they  stood  within  a  stone's  throw  of  each  other,  facing 
the  main  road  through  Wakefield,  surrounded  by 
pleasant  gardens  and  summer-houses,  and  wearing  to 
the  eye  of  the  passer-by  the  aspect  of  an  ideal  retreat 
for  wealthy  leisure.  The  brothers  or  the  cousins  who 
occupied  these  mansions  could  interchange  visits  as 
many  times  daily  as  they  pleased  without  inconveni- 
ence, so  close  together  stood  their  homes.  Not  only  in 
Wakefield,  but  throughout  Yorkshire,  they  were 
looked  up  to  for  their  wealth,  for  their  sturdy  integrity, 
and  their  sound  business  qualities. 

Their  social  position  meanwhile  was  that  of  a  family 
of  country  gentlemen,  and  their  alliances  showed  that 
their  business  connections  in  no  way  interfered  with 
their  free  intercourse  with  the  neighbouring  aristocracy. 
By  one  of  their  marriages  they  became  possessed  of  the 
old  hall  at  Great  Houghton,  once  the  residence  of 
Straffbrd.  This  property  has  never  been  alienated ;  the 
fine  old  hall,  though  now  turned  to  humble  use  as  a 
country  inn,  being  still  in  the  possession  of  the  present 
Lord  Houghton.  A  member  of  the  Milnes  family 
who  died  a  few  years  ago  could  remember  the  scraps 
of  moth-eaten  black  cloth  which,  in  her  childhood, 
hung  here  and  there  in  the  great  hall  of  the  old  house 
— remnants  of  the  mourning  in  which  it  was  draped 
on  the  day  when  Strafford  perished  on  the  scaffold ; 
whilst  the  salver  from  which  he  was  last  served  before 
his  execution  is  one  of  the  treasures  of  Fryston. 

One  of  the  family,  Eichard  Milnes,  by  his  marriage 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  5 

with  the  daughter  and  heiress  of  Mr.  John  Pemberton, 
of  Liverpool,  added  largely  to  the  fortunes  of  the  house. 
His  son,  Pemberton  Milnes,  was  a  man  of  great  wealth ; 
he  bought  the  fine  estate  of  Bawtry,  near  Doncaster,  and 
built  or  enlarged  the  handsome  manor-house  still  stand- 
ing there.  He  played  a  leading  part  in  the  politics  of 
the  West  Riding,  and  his  name  is  to  be  found  with  those 
of  the  Fitzwilliams,  the  Cavendishes,  and  the  Foljambes 
in  the  "  New  Song  "  written  by  Lord  Effingham : — 

"  Not  the  fire,  0  Pern  Milnes,  of  twenty  brick-kilns 

Can  consistency  give  to  thy  clay, 
First  to  sign  requisition,  then  let  curst  coalition 
Make  a  Milnes  his  engagement  betray — 
O  Pern  Milnes ! " 

The  allusion  in  this  rhyme  to  the  brick-kilns  had 
reference  to  the  fact  that  in  addition  to  his  great  com- 
mercial undertakings  in  the  cloth  trade,  Mr.  Pemberton 
Milnes  was  a  large  manufacturer  of  bricks,  and  at  that 
time  the  only  smoke  betokening  the  existence  of  in- 
dustrial operations  which  clouded  the  atmosphere  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Wakefield  was  that  which  arose  from 
his  formidable  array  of  brick-kilns. 

The  only  child  of  this  Eobert  Pemberton  Milnes  was 
a  daughter,  whose  marriage  with  Viscount  Galway  was 
the  first  of  the  alliances  which  have  since  so  closely 
bound  together  the  two  families  of  Milnes  and  Monck- 
ton.  At  her  father's  death  she  inherited  from  him  the 
Bawtry  estate. 

The  nephew  of  Pemberton  Milnes,  the  eldest  son  of 


6  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

his  younger  brother,  was  Eichard  Slater  Milnes,  the 
first  member  of  the  family  who  settled  at  Fryston. 
His  marriage,  like  those  of  not  a  few  of  his  forefathers, 
tended  to  increase  the  fortunes  of  the  family.  His  wife 
was  Rachel  Busk,  the  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  Mr. 
Hans  Busk,  of  Leeds,  and  it  was  through  her  that  the 
Great  Houghton  estate,  from  which  the  title  of  the 
present  peerage  has  been  taken,  came  into  the  possession 
of  Mr.  Slater  Milnes.  In  1784,  at  the  early  age  of 
twenty-five,  he  was  elected  one  of  the  representatives  of 
the  city  of  York  in  Parliament,  and  he  held  his  seat  in 
the  House  of  Commons  until  1802,  when  he  retired,  just 
two  years  before  his  death.  A  portion  of  the  large 
fortune  which  he  had  obtained  from  his  father  was 
devoted  to  the  purchase  of  the  Fryston  estate.  Frys- 
ton is  a  substantial  country  house  of  considerable  size, 
situated  in  a  pleasant  park  on  the  borders  of  the  river 
Aire.  The  wonderful  growth  of  its  industrial  fortunes 
which  the  West  Eiding  has  witnessed  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  has  been  fatal  to  many  of 
the  beauties  of  scenery  of  which  it  could  originally  boast. 
Among  other  losses  to  which  it  has  had  to  submit,  as  its 
material  wealth  has  increased,  has  been  that  of  the 
purity  of  its  streams  and  rivers;  and  the  silvery  Aire, 
of  which  poets  once  sang,  and  by  the  banks  of  which 
the  angler  loved  to  wander,  is  now  a  black  and  turbid 
stream,  which  carries  to  the  great  ocean  the  refuse  of 
Leeds  and  Bradford  and  a  score  of  smaller  towns.*  But 

*  Lewis  Morris's  poem,  "  A  Yorkshire  River,"  refers  to  the  Aire  at 
Fryston  in  its  present  state. 


PARENTAGE   AND   BIRTH.  7 

when  the  first  Milnes  took  up  his  abode  at  Fryston,  in  the 
year  1780,  he  found  himself  not  only  the  owner  of  one  of 
the  most  important  country  seats  of  Yorkshire,  but 
dwelling  in  the  midst  of  pleasant  and  delightful  rural 
scenery.  Fryston  lies  at  some  distance  from  Wakefield, 
but  Mr.  Slater  Milnes  continued  throughout  his  life  to 
devote  considerable  attention  to  the  business  still  carried 
on  in  his  name  in  that  town.  His  Parliamentary  duties 
may  have  absorbed  the  greater  part  of  his  time,  whilst 
the  large  estates  of  which  he  was  now  the  possessor 
must  also  have  made  many  demands  upon  his  care  and 
thought,  but  he  retained  his  connection  with  Wakefield, 
and  its  staple  industry,  and  derived  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  large  income  from  the  latter.  He  was  a 
sportsman,  a  country  gentleman,  a  man  of  fashion,  and 
a  conspicuous  figure  in  London  society.  Egremont 
House,  Piccadilly,  now  known  as  Cambridge  House, 
and  which  before  its  conversion  into  the  Naval  and 
Military  Club  was  the  town  residence  of  Lord  Palmers- 
ton,  was,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  Mr.  Slater 
Milnes's  London  home.  In  politics  he  was  an  ardent 
supporter  of  Mr.  Fox,  and  subscribed  largely  towards 
the  payment  of  the  statesman's  debts.  His  marriage 
was  a  fruitful  one,  two  sons  and  seven  daughters  being 
born  to  him.  Of  the  sons,  the  elder,  Robert  Pem- 
berton  Milnes,  was  the  father  of  Richard  Monckton 
Milnes,  first  Baron  Houghton.* 

Mr.  Robert  Pemberton  Milnes  was  a  man  of  remark- 

*  Mr.  B.  S.  Milnes's  colleague  in  the  representation  of  Tork  was 
Yiscount  Gal  way,  the  grandfather,  on  the  maternal  side,  of  Lord  Houghton. 


8  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

able  qualities,  whose  career,  though  his  name  is  now 
almost  forgotten,  at  one  time  excited  the  highest  ex- 
pectations among  those  best  qualified  to  judge  a  man's 
merits  and  capacity.  That  he  never  made  for  himself 
that  place  in  the  world  to  which  his  powers  undoubtedly 
entitled  him,  must  be  regretfully  admitted.  In  his 
youth,  fortune  seemed  to  lie  at  his  feet,  and  to  no  man 
of  his  time  was  a  more  brilliant  career  opened.  That 
he  should  have  ended  his  days  in  the  quiet  of  the  life 
of  a  country  gentleman,  steadfastly  turning  his  back 
upon  that  fame  and  power  which  had  at  one  time  been 
within  his  grasp,  must  be  attributed  solely  to  the 
peculiar  idiosyncrasy  of  a  character  which  was  no 
common  one. 

I  have  said  that  the  name  of  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes 
is  now  almost  forgotten.  During  the  first  half  of  this 
century,  however,  the  tradition  of  his  youthful  fame  was 
widely  cherished  in  the  political  circles  of  England,  and 
the  curious  vicissitudes  of  his  career,  in  almost  every 
case  self-inflicted,  formed  a  basis  upon  which  the  figure 
of  a  hero  of  romance  might  well  have  been  founded. 
Along  with  his  younger  brother  Eodes  Milnes,  he  began 
his  education  in  a  private  school  kept  by  a  Mr.  Shepherd 
at  Liverpool.  On  leaving  school  he  was  entered  at 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  in  1804  took  his  degree 
of  B.  A.  His  college  career  was  a  brilliant  one ;  he  was 
the  first  man  of  his  time  at  Trinity,  and  throughout  the 
University  his  reputation  was  great.  The  death  of  his 
father  in  1804,  shortly  before  Robert  Pemberton  Milnes 
attained  his  majority,  made  him  master  of  his  own 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  9 

fortunes ;  the  Houghton  and  Fryston  estates,  however, 
which  now  constituted  the  greater  portion  of  the  family 
property,  remained  in  the  hands  of  his  mother,  and 
pecuniarily  his  position  was  by  no  means  so  good  as  that 
of  his  father  had  been.  In  1806,  at  the  age  of  twenty -two, 
he  was  elected  one  of  the  members  for  Pontefract,  the 
little  borough  tying  hard  by  the  confines  of  the  Fryston 
domain,  over  whose  political  fortunes  the  families  of 
Monckton  and  Savile  had  long  wielded  a  preponderating 
influence.  It  was  the  young  man's  good  fortune  to  take 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  whilst  Pitt  and  Fox 
were  still  counted  among  its  members.  He  came  in  as  a 
supporter  of  the  Tory  party.  But  young  as  he  was,  the 
peculiar  independence  of  his  character  made  it  impossible 
that  he  should  become  the  adherent  through  thick  and 
thin  of  any  political  party,  and  he  was  very  soon  to  give 
striking  proof  of  tbe  fact  that  he  was  capable  of  forming 
and  abiding  by  an  opinion  of  his  own  irrespective  of 
family  traditions  or  early  training.  The  year  1806 
proved  fatal  both  to  Pitt  and  to  Fox ;  in  the  following 
year  the  King  dismissed  the  Ministry  of  "  all  the 
talents  "  because  of  their  proposed  measure  of  relief  for 
the  Catholics,  and  the  Portland'  administration  was 
formed,  with  Canning  as  Secretary  of  State.  The 
adherents  of  the  old  Ministers,  furious  at  what  had 
happened,  rallied  for  an  attack  upon  Canning,  which 
took  the  shape  of  a  resolution  moved  by  Mr.  Lyttelton, 
directly  hostile  to  the  new  Government.  To  Mr.  Milnes, 
who  had  become  one  of  the  adherents  of  Canning, 
was  assigned  the  task  of  leading  the  defence  of  the 


10  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

administration.  He  moved  as  an  amendment,  upon 
Mr.  Lyttelton's  motion  the  previous  question,  and  he  did 
so  in  a  speech  which  at  the  time  aroused  more  enthu- 
siasm than  has  probably  ever  before  or  since  been  created 
by  the  oratorical  effort  of  a  young  man  of  three-and- 
twenty.  The  conditions  of  Parliamentary  life  have 
undergone  so  complete  a  transformation  since  the  time 
when  Mr.  Miloes  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  a  mere  youth, 
whose  Parliamentary  career  was  only  counted  by  months, 
should  have  stepped  into  such  a  place  as  that  which  he 
took  when  he  made  his  famous  speech  of  April  15th, 
1807,  and  by  means  of  it  averted  a  threatened  overthrow 
of  the  Government.  Yet  that  I  have  not  overstated 
the  case  with  regard  to  that  speech  and  its  effects  is 
proved  not  only  by  the  traditions  which  lingered  round 
the  name  of  Mr.  Milnes  for  well-nigh  half  a  century 
after  he  had  himself  quitted  the  Parliamentary  arena, 
but  by  contemporary  testimony.  Before  me  lies  a  letter 
dated  April  27,  1807,  written  by  a  member  of  Par- 
liament who  was  present  on  the  occasion  of  the  critical 
debate : — 

The  hero  of  the  evening  who  carried  away  with  him  the 
greatest  share  of  applause  was  a  youth  of  the  name  of  Milnes,  a 
Yorkshireman,  member  for  Pontefract,  and  about  twenty-four 
years  of  age.  He  spoke  on  the  other  side  of  the  question,  and  with 
such  fluency,  neatness,  elegance,  and  force  (it  is  true,  I  assure 
you),  that  he  drew  forth  the  most  tumultuous  applause  and 
encouragement  from  every  part  of  the  House.  He  was  known 
at  Cambridge  to  be  an  extraordinarily  clever  fellow,  but  never 
publicly  distinguished  himself  there  in  consequence  of  having 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH,  11 

engaged  in  too  extensive  a  line  of  study  and  never  having 
brought  all  the  powers  of  his  mind  to  bear  solely  on  any  parti- 
cular branch.  I  am  sorry,  however,  to  hear,  and  from  rather 
good  authority,  of  his  having  laid  a  wager  that  he  is  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  within  two  years.  This  puts  one  in  mind  of 
Simpkinson  and  the  Woolsack. 

As  to  the  truth  of  the  story  about  Mr.  Milnes's  wager 
his  biographer  is  not  in.  a  position  to  offer  any  decisive 
opinion.  The  tradition  of  the  bet  has,  however,  long  been 
current.  In  one  of  the  commonplace-books  which  were 
kept  by  Robert  Pemberton  Milnes's  son,  the  subject  of 
this  memoir,  there  is  a  note  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Milnes 
did  lay  a  wager  of  £100  that  he  would  be  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  within  five  years  of  his  entering  upon 
Parliamentary  life.  The  story  which  Lord  Houghton 
used  to  tell  on  the  subject  was  that  after  his  father 
had  refused  the  place  in  the  Ministry  pressed  upon 
him  by  Mr.  Perceval,  he  sent  to  the  friend  with  whom 
he  had  made  his  bet  a  copy  of  Mr.  Perceval's  letter  and 
a  cheque  for  £100. 

In  the  autumn  of  1308  Mr.  Milnes  married  the  Honor- 
able Henrietta  Maria  Monckton,  the  second  daughter  of 
Viscount  Galway.  with  whose  family,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  Milneses  were  already  connected.  This  lady,  the 
mother  of  Lord  Houghton,  was,  like  her  husband,  of 
something  more  than  merely  agreeable  appearance,  and 
like  him,  she  was  endowed  with  exceptional  talents. 
According  to  the  reminiscences  of  those  who  knew  her 
in  her  early  days,  she  was  a  woman  of  remarkably  beau- 
tiful features,  and  the  possessor  of  a  singularly  fine 


12  THE    LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

voice,  which  had  been  carefully  trained  by  emigres,  to 
whom  Lord  Galway  was  very  hospitable.  Her  fame 
as  a  vocalist  long  survived  her.  Her  death  revealed 
the  fact  that  she  possessed  one  faculty  for  which  she  had 
received  no  credit  during  her  lifetime.  This  was  a  dis- 
tinct literary  gift,  of  which  the  memorial  remains  in  two 
by  no  means  bulky  manuscript  volumes.  In  these 
volumes  Mrs.  Milnes  wrote  the  history  of  her  married 
life  from  the  day  of  her  wedding  to  that  on  which, 
nearly  forty  years  afterwards,  she  was  compelled  to  lay 
aside  her  pen  in  the  presence  of  death.  Nothing  is  more 
remarkable  in  this  simple  record  of  her  family  life  than 
the  self -repression  of  the  writer ;  it  was  no  journal  that 
she  kept  filled  with  the  records  of  her  self-communings 
and  her  moralisings  upon  men  and  things.  Though 
the  book  was  designed  for  no  eyes  save  those  of  her 
children,  it  was  written  with  a  sense  of  proportion  and 
an  appreciation  of  literary  forms  that  are  remarkable  in 
such  a  production.  Indeed,  as  told  by  her,  the  story  of 
her  life  has  all  the  interest  of  a  well-developed  and 
well-constructed  romance,  and  those  who  have  been 
privileged  to  peruse  it,  on  laying  it  aside  are  troubled 
only  by  the  regret  that  the  tale  should  have  been  so 
short,  although  it  ranges  over  the  extent  of  nearly  two- 
score  years.  I  have  felt  it  due  to  Mrs.  Milnes  to  say  so 
much  as  this  regarding  her  one  literary  production, 
because  it  is  no  far-fetched  idea  that  the  literary  faculty 
possessed  in  so  marked  a  degree  by  her  son  was  derived 
from  her  as  well  as  from  her  husband.  From  time  to 
time  I  shall  have  occasion  to  quote  passages  from  the 


PARENTAGE   AND   BIRTH.  13 

journal,  which  I  think   will  substantiate  the  claims  I 
have  made  on  behalf  of  its  author. 

The  marriage  of  Mr.  E.  P.  Milnes  and  Miss 
Monckton  was  celebrated  on  September  22nd,  1808; 
and  on  the  19th  of  June,  1809,  Eichard  Monckton 
Milnes,  the  story  of  whose  life  is  to  be  told  in  these 
pages,  was  born  at  the  town  house  of  his  parents  in 
Bolton  Street,  Mayfair.  As  soon  as  Mrs.  Milnes  was 
able  to  travel,  the  parents  went  with  their  infant  child 
to  Scarborough,  and  here  in  the  month  of  August  an 
event  interesting  not  only  in  their  own  history  but  in 
that  of  the  country  occurred. 

From  Mrs.  Milnes's  Journal,  1809. 

One  morning,  while  we  were  at  breakfast,  a  King's  mes- 
senger drove  up  in  a  post-chaise  and  four  with  a  despatch  from 
Mr.  Perceval,  offering  Mr.  Milnes  the  choice  of  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet,  either  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  or  Secretary  of 
War.  Mr.  Milnes  immediately  said,  "  Oh,  no,  I  will  not  accept 
either ;  with  my  temperament  I  should  be  dead  in  a  year/'  I 
knelt  and  entreated  that  he  should,  and  represented  it  might  be 
an  advantage  to  our  little  boy,  please  God  he  lived ;  but  all  was 
to  no  purpose,  and  he  went  up  to  London  to  decline  the  most 
nattering  and  distinguished  compliment  ever  known  to  have 
been  paid  to  so  young  a  man. 

The  incident,  as  I  have  said,  is  of  interest  not 
merely  in  connection  with  the  life  of  Mr.  Milnes,  but 
with  the  history  of  England,  for  it  was  the  refusal  of 
that  gentleman  to  accept  the  office  which  was  pressed 
upon  him  by  Mr.  Perceval  that  gave  Lord  Palmerston 
admission  to  the  Ministry,  and  started  him  fairly  on 


14  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

that  career  which  was  to  lead  him  to  the  Premiership. 
Lord  Palmerston's  maiden  speech  in  the  House  had, 
curiously  enough,  been  made  in  reply  to  what  he 
himself  describes  as  a  "  splendid  speech "  by  Mr. 
Milnes  on  the  capture  of  Copenhagen ;  and  in  Bulwer's 
life  of  Palmerston  (vol.  i.,  page  88)  the  story  of  Mr. 
Milnes's  refusal  of  office  is  told  at  length : — 

The  well-known  quarrel  between  Lord  Castlereagh  and  Mr. 
Canning  had  led  to  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  Ministry,  though 
not  to  the  downfall  of  the  party  in  the  possession  of  power. 
Mr.  Perceval  became  Prime  Minister,  and  had  to  fill  up  important 
places,  without  any  very  ready  means  of  doing  so  with  men  of 
established  reputation.  He  turned  not  unnaturally,  therefore, 
to  those  young  men  who  had  given  promise  of  ability. 

I 
Writing  to  Lord  Malmesbury,   October   18,    1809, 

Palmerston  gives  an  account  of  an  interview  he  had 
with  Perceval  : — 

He  then  told  me  that  it  depended  upon  certain  other  arrange- 
ments whether  he  should  be  able  to  give  me  the  War  Office ; 
that  conceiving  Milnes  would  be  a  very  great  acquisition  to 
Government  if  the  bias  he  had  in  favour  of  Canning  did  not 
prevent  him  from  joining  us,  he  had  written  to  him  to  say  that 
he  had  to  offer  him  such  an  official  situation  as,  if  inclined  to 
take  any,  he  would  probably  be  disposed  to  accept.  That  should 
Milnes  come  up  in  consequence,  he  meant  to  offer  him  the 
Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer;  but  that  it  was  possible 
Milnes  might  decline  so  ostensible  a  post,  and  that  then,  rather 
than  run  the  risk  of  losing  his  support,  he  wished  to  offer  him 
the  War  Office,  which,  in  case  he  declined  the  other,  he  might 
accept. 

The  letter  in  which  Mr.   Perceval  made  the  offer, 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  15 

which  Mrs.  Milnes  fitly  characterised  as  so  flattering  to 
her  husband,  is  as  follows  : — 

Downing  Street,  Oct.  14M,  1809. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  hope  the  object  of  this  letter  will  apologise 
for  my  intruding  it  upon  you.  If  the  circumstances  which  have 
recently  happened,  the  separation  which  has  unhappily  taken 
place  between  some  of  our  political  friends  and  myself,  and  the 
change  of  Government  which  has  placed  me  at  the  head  of  the 
Administration,  should  not  unhappily  have  indisposed  you  to 
give  us  your  support,  I  have  an  opportunity  of  offering  you  an 
efficient  situation  in  His  Majesty's  service,  which  will  fairly  suit 
the  high  and  great  pretension  which  the  proofs  you  have  given 
of  very  superior  talents  so  truly  entitle  you  to  entertain.  I  feel 
perfectly  confident  that  if  you  could  give  the  Administration 
which  His  Majesty  has  charged  me  to  form  your  official  support, 
that  you  would  not  object  to  do  so  on  account  of  the  office  which 
I  would  offer  to  you,  as  being  a  subordinate  one,  or  one  unworthy 
of  your  acceptance.  But  you  must,  I  am  aware,  of  necessity  be 
very  imperfectly  informed  of  all  the  circumstances  which  have 
led  to  these  changes ;  and  I  do  not  think  it  reasonable  to  expect 
that  you  should  form  any  determinate  opinion  upon  such  a  pro- 
position as  I  am  offering  to  you  without  more  information  in 
detail  than  you  can  possibly  at  present  possess.  All,  therefore, 
that  I  can  hope  to  effect  by  this  letter  is  to  induce  you  to  come 
to  town,  when  I  will  give  you  every  possible  explanation  that  you 
can  require ;  and  till  then  I  must  be  content  to  remain  in  doubt 
as  to  your  determination.  Permit  me  to  repeat  that  unless  you 
see  an  insurmountable  objection  to  this  proposal,  I  trust  you  will 
not  decide  against  it  without  giving  me  the  opportunity  of  some 
personal  conference  and  explanation  of  it. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be,  my  dear  Sir, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 
R.  P.  MILNES,  Esq.  S.  P.  PERCEVAL. 


16  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

Mr.  Milnes,  as  his  wife  states,  went  up  to  town  at 
once  to  confer  with  Mr.  Perceval  and  with  Mr.  Canning, 
for  whom  he  entertained  a  strong  personal  admiration, 
and  with  whose  political  opinions  he  was  generally  in 
harmony.  No  record  remains  of  the  reasons  he  gave 
for  turning  his  back  upon  such  an  opening  as  has  pre- 
sented itself  to  few  men  of  this  century  beyond  that 
contained  in  his  wife's  journal.  Lord  Palmerston,  indeed, 
in  his  letters  to  Lord  Malmesbury,  declares  that  Mr. 
Milnes's  refusal  of  office  was  founded  upon  real  and 
unaffected  diffidence  ;  an  explanation  which,  it  must  be 
confessed,  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  the  young 
man's  college  wager  on  the  subject  of  the  Chancellor- 
ship of  the  Exchequer.  The  truth  is  that  his  tempera- 
ment was  exceedingly  peculiar.  He  was,  as  Sir  Henry 
Bulwer,  in  his  "  Life  of  Palmerston,"  remarks,  "  a  high- 
minded,  impressionable  man ;"  but  he  had  also  an 
element  of  fastidiousness  in  his  nature,  which  was  the 
cause  of  his  "  always  finding  something  to  condemn  on 
all  sides."  He  had,  besides,  after  leaving  college,  suf- 
fered from  a  severe  illness,  one  of  the  -effects  of  which 
was  to  make  him  shrink  from  a  life  of  political  toil  and 
excitement. 

Whatever  the  cause  may  have  been,  however,  the 
fact  remains  that  from  the  date  of  his  refusal  of  a  seat 
in  the  Cabinet  Mr.  Milnes  ceased  to  take  any  prominent 
part  in  that  arena  of  Parliamentary  life  in  which,  had 
he  chosen,  he  might  have  cut  so  great  a  figure. 

In  the  collection  of  his  letters,  to  which  his  bio- 
grapher has  had  access,  it  is  almost  pathetic  to  note  that 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  17 

the  next  communication  he  received  from  Mr.  Perceval 
after  that  in  which  he  was  pressed  to  come  to  the  aid  of 
the  Administration,  was  one  dated  1811,  in  which  Mr. 
Perceval  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  a  communication 
from  him  on  the  subject  of  an  increased  allowance  for 
the  schoolmaster  at  Pontefract.  The  "brilliant  political 
meteor  of  Bolton  Row,"  as  one  of  his  old  friends 
describes  him,  had  been  transformed  into  the  country 
gentleman,  whose  chief  interest  lay  in  the  management 
of  his  own  estate,  and  in  ministering  to  the  needs  of 
his  neighbours  and  dependents.  In  the  romance  of 
politics  there  are  few  chapters  more  interesting  than 
that  which  tells  us  the  story  of  how  the  young  country 
gentleman,  within  a  few  months  of  his  admission  to 
Parliament,  thrilled  the  House  of  Commons  by  his 
eloquence,  and  made  for  himself  a  reputation  that 
seemed  the  certain  stepping-stone  to  the  highest  place 
in  the  service  of  his  country,  and  how,  at  the  very 
moment  when  his  utmost  ambition  seemed  to  be  on  the 
point  of  being  gratified,  and  prospects  of  unexampled 
brilliancy  were  opened  before  him,  he  quietly  turned 
aside  from  the  glittering  temptation  and  gave  himself 
up  to  a  life  of  comparative  retirement  and  indolence. 
Not  that  it  would  be  correct  to  ascribe  to  slothful  self- 
indulgence  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Milnes  from  public 
life.  His  keen  interest  in  affairs  remained  unabated, 
and  in  Yorkshire  he  aspired  to  take  a  leading  place  at 
the  head  of  his  party.  He  had  evidently  satisfied  him- 
self, however,  that  his  taste  was  too  fastidious,  perhaps 
his  sense  of  honour  too  high,  to  permit  him  to  engage 


18  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

in  the  strife  and  turmoil  of  a  personal  struggle  in  the 
political  arena.  For  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  was, 
even  whilst  he  retained  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  a  spectator  of  the  battle  rather  than  a  com- 
batant, and  though,  as  I  have  said,  the  tradition  of  his 
early  greatness  was  long  cherished  in  the  political  world, 
he  himself  ceased  to  be  a  figure  in  it,  almost  from  the 
moment  when  he  refused  the  brilliant  offers  of  Mr. 
Perceval. 

The  truth  is  that  he  conceived  the  life  of  an  English 
country  gentleman,  living  among  his  own  people,  to 
be  in  many  respects  the  highest  and  the  most  enviable 
to  which  any  man  could  aspire.  The  landed  interest  of 
the  country  seemed  to  him  to  be  that  of  greatest  im- 
portance; and  although  upon  many  political  questions 
he  was  in  advance  of  his  party,  and  upon  all  was  able 
to  form  an  intelligent  judgment,  he  never  throughout 
his  life  failed  to  give  the  first  place  in  his  considera- 
tion to  those  questions  which  closely  affected  the 
ownership  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  In  after- 
years  he  was  wont  to  discuss  with  his  son  the  various 
questions  connected  with  the  land,  and  he  invariably 
did  so  from  the  landowner's  point  of  view.  From  time 
to  time  he  emerged  from  his  retirement  at  Frvston  in 
order  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  great  political 
movements  by  means  of  which  his  party  in  Yorkshire 
sought  to  avert  or  to  counteract  such  measures  as  the 
abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws ;  and  there  are  still  some 
living  who  can  recall  the  great  impression  which  was 
made  upon  crowded  audiences  in  the  Assembly  Booms 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  19 

at  York  when  the  man  who  had  once  moved  the 
House  of  Commons  by  his  eloquence,  devoted  himself 
to  the  task  of  stimulating  the  waning  energies  of  the 
Conservative  party  in  Yorkshire.  These  infrequent 
appearances  of  his  enabled  a  later  generation  than 
that  to  which  he  himself  belonged  to  realise  the 
fact  that  when  Mr.  Milnes  quitted  public  life,  the 
country  lost  the  services  of  one  whose  natural  abilities 
would  have  enabled  him,  if  such  had  been  his  ambi- 
tion, to  rise  to  one  of  the  highest  positions  in  the 
State. 

Late  in  life  he  printed  for  private  circulation  a 
few  copies  of  a  journal  of  a  tour  taken  by  himself, 
his  wife  and  daughter,  in  the  South  of  Italy  in  the 
year  1831.  This  little  book  is  interesting  because  of 
some  passages  which  throw  light  upon  the  mind  of  the 
writer,  and  which  help  one  to  realise  his  peculiar  posi- 
tion with  regard  to  politics.  "  My  own  politics,"  he 
says,  "  owed  their  first  direction  to  having  observed  at 
the  school  I  was  sent  to  and  at  Brooks's  Club,  where 
I  was  a  member  at  nineteen,  that  all  their  wish  and  hope 
was  against  their  own  country.  Years  afterwards  there 
would  have  been  paeans  at  Brooks's  if  the  Duke  had 
been  taken  prisoner."  Brought  up  in  the  traditions 
of  Whiggism,  and  as  a  member  of  a  family  who  at 
that  period  held  aloof  from  the  Established  Church, 
Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes,  it  is  clear,  had  early  begun  to 
criticise  the  tendencies  and  opinions  of  his  political 
associates.  He  seems,  in  short,  to  have  become  a  Con- 
servative rather  because  of  his  fastidious  distaste  for 


20  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

the  more  extravagant  manifestations  of  the  Whig 
spirit  than  from  any  positive  inclination  towards  the 
traditional  Toryism.  This,  and  that  other  feature  of 
his  character  of  which  I  have  spoken,  his  intense 
delight  and  pride  in  the  position  of  a  country  gentle- 
man, were  clearly  the  ruling  factors  in  his  political 
career. 

"  I  have  my  apprehensions,"  he  remarks  in  his 
journal  of  travel,  "  for  my  own  rank,  that  of  a  country 
gentleman — an  order  which  no  Sovereign  but  ours  of 
England  has,  and  which  kings  and  princes  have  no 
conception  of — its  supporters,  the  horse  and  a  fox ;  its 
crest,  my  own,  the  wheatsheaf ;  its  motto,  Hospitality." 

Before  I  leave  this  sketch  of  the  political  career 
of  Mr.  Pemherton  Milnes,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
give  his  description  of  Pitt  as  an  orator,  which  is  to  be 
found  in  the  same  notebook  of  travel : — "  The  highest 
impression  imparted  to  me  by  words  spoken  was  by 
those  which  I  heard  from  Mr.  Pitt,  whose  form  is  even 
now  distinctly  before  me.  His  powers  were  of  a  mighty 
order,  for  none  heard  him  without  an  absorbing  interest, 
which  is  proof  conclusive.  You  felt  you  had  been 
charmed  in  the  listening;  it  was  even  to  that  which 
you  had  been  thinking  of  within  yourself.  There  was 
the  secret  in  his  elocution  as  it  is  in  the  antique — in 
debate  caught  on  the  moment  he  saw  intuitively  into 
the  minds  of  his  hearers,  he  identified  himself  with 
them  and  impersonated  their  prevailing  thought,  which 
they  with  rapture  heard  in  his  gorgeous  language.  In 
his  periods  of  majestic  correctness,  and  sometimes  so 


PARENTAGE   AND   BIRTH.  21 

elaborate  as  to  take  two  minutes  in  the  delivery,  he  never 
turned  from  or  broke  in  upon  the  one  impression  which 
he  felt  was  pervading  the  assembly ;  all  was  subordinated 
to  its  development — and  yet  tantalising  in  expressing 
it — protracting  as  though  to  be  surer  of  it — after  an 
interval  of  breathless  suspense,  he  then  unfurled  its  full 
display,  like  that  of  Cesar's  mantle,  at  the  instant  of 
intensest  expectation.  They  voted  in  delirium.  He 
was  the  consummate  master  of  his  art,  and  the  greatest 
leader  the  Commons  ever  had  or  ever  will  have." 

Although  naturally  reserved,  Mr.  Milnes  seems  to 
have  possessed  to  a  very  large  degree  that  laudable 
curiosity  regarding  men  and  events  of  note  which  was 
afterwards  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  his  son.  One 
illustration  of  this  was  afforded  in  the  spring  of  1814, 
when,  accompanied  by  his  friend  Lord  Lowther,  he 
visited  Paris,  immediately  after  the  overthrow  of 
Napoleon  had  once  more  opened  that  city  to  English- 
men. Lord  Lowther  and  Mr.  Milnes  were  the  first 
Englishmen  who  landed  at  Boulogne  after  the  war, 
they  having  crossed  the  Channel  in  a  sloop  placed 
at  their  disposal  by  the  Admiralty. 

Writing  to  his  wife  from  Paris,  April  23rd,  1814,  he 
says  : — 

We  arrived  here,  after  a  journey  without  any  interruption, 
yesterday,  at  6  o'clock.  We  went  from  Deal  to  Boulogne  in  the 
Rinaldo,  a  cutter  which  a  letter  from  the  Admiralty  procured  us. 
As  we  did  not  wish  to  get  into  Boulogne  late,  we  slept  very 
comfortably  on  board  the  vessel.  On  our  getting  out  of  the 
boat,  there  were  at  least  a  hundred  women,  wanting  to  carry  us 
on  their  shoulders  through  the  gates,  which  they  did.  They 


22  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

began  by  crying,  "  Vive  les  Anglais  \"  "  Buonaparte  au  diable  ! " 
Boulogne  had  a  white  flag  hanging  out  of  every  window, 
generally  a  common  sheet.  We  had  not  been  in  the  town  many 
minutes  when  regiments  of  Prussians  rode  before  the  windows, 
and  a  great  number  of  cannon  and  ammunition  waggons  were 
piled  along  the  roadside.  They  were  troops  from  the  army  in 
the  Netherlands,  and  were  there  to  escort  the  king.  On  Thurs- 
day we  slept  at  Beauvois.  All  the  way  we  saw  nothing  but 
Prussian  and  Russian  troops,  which  were  marching  from  Paris, 
as  they  are  unable  to  subsist  so  large  an  army  here,  and  they  are 
dispersing  them  in  all  directions.  Near  Paris  we  saw  nothing 
of  the  white  flags,  and  we  took  the  cockades  out  of  our  hats  we 
had  put  in  at  Boulogne,  as  nobody  wore  them.  Near  Paris  we 
met  several  conscripts  on  their  return  to  their  homes.  They 
were  entirely  boys,  quite  young — some  I  think,  not  more  than 
thirteen  or  fourteen,  and  none  twenty.  We  saw  very  few 
Cossacks,  only  one  now  and  then.  They  have  plundered  and 
destroyed  everything,  and  now  they  live  without  paying.  We 
found  there  were  no  troops  left  at  Paris,  but  the  Guards  of  the 
three  Emperors,  about  40,000  men.  All  the  Parisians  are,  how- 
ever, in  uniforms,  as  they  form  a  National  Guard,  similar  to  our 
volunteers.  They  would  not  fight,  however.  The  conscripts  (the 
boys  I  mentioned)  fought  with  the  greatest  bravery.  The 
streets  present  a  very  curious  appearance — you  would  still 
imagine  yourself  in  the  midst  of  war.  All  the  houses  had  holes 
in  the  walls  to  fire  out  of,  and  it  is  known  if  Buonaparte  had 
been  here  he  would  have  defended  every  single  house,  which 
would  have  caused  the  destruction  of  the  whole  of  Paris.  We 
went  to  the  Opera  after  our  arrival,  and  such  a  blackguard 
assortment  you  never  saw.  The  French  give  you  no  idea  of 
what  we  should  pronounce  gentlemen — not  half  as  good  as  the 
medley  of  city  beaux  out  of  a  Sunday  in  London. 

We  called  on  Talleyrand  with  our  letter  from  Lord  Yarmouth,* 
and  if  he  gives  any  dinners  or  balls,  we  shall  be  invited.     We 

*  Lord  Yarmouth,  the  famous  Marquis  of  Hertford,  was  one  of  Mr. 
Milnes's  intimate  friends. 


PARENTAGE    AND   BIRTH.  23 

afterwards  went  to  Lord  Castlereagh's,  where  we  stayed  an  hour, 
and  Lord  Burghersh's,  who  has  been  showing  us  about  the 
town.  .  .  .  Paris  itself  is  finer  than  I  expected,  though 
even  the  city  is  emblematical  of  the  French  character,  and  is  a 
strange  mixture  of  meanness  and  the  greatest  grandeur.  .  . 
Lord  Castlereagh  told  us  that  the  internal  administration  of 
France  is  so  destitute  and  confounded  that  he  has  never  heard 
from  London  since  he  came  to  France. 

Wednesday,  April  27th.  .  .  .  The  day  before  yesterday 
we  were  taken  by  Captain  Harris,  who  brought  the  despatches, 
and  who  is  the  clergyman's  son  where  Lord  Lonsdale  lives  in 
Rutlandshire,  to  see  Bliicher;  he  speaks  nothing  but  German, 
and  had  an  interpreter.  We  were  introduced  to  him,  and  he 
told  us  he  should  certainly  go  to  England,  for  whose  glorious 
name  he  had  the  utmost  reverence,  but  that  he  must  stay  at 
Paris  some  time,  as  his  incessant  fatigue  had  weakened  his  eyes. 
He  was  in  plain  dress,  and  has  so  mild  a  countenance,  you  never 
could  have  thought  him  so  great  a  warrior.  .  .  .  We  have 
gone  through  visiting  all  the  public  buildings  and  other  curio- 
sities of  Paris.  What  Buonaparte  has  done  for  the  city  you 
must  see  to  credit,  as  nothing  we  have  in  England  is  comparable 
to  the  splendour  of  its  edifices.  His  improvements,  however, 
were  in  their  infancy,  and  a  reign  of  another  half  a  dozen  years 
would  have  rendered  Paris  more  magnificent  than  Rome  in  her 
best  days.  .  .  .  We  went  last  night  to  see  the  great  play- 
room, which  is  conducted  by  Government.  Lord  Bliicher  was  in 
the  midst  of  the  rouge-et-noir,  and  Waddington's  friend,  R.  G., 
was  risking,  I  daresay,  his  last  guinea. 

In  the  following  year  Mr.  Milnes  and  his  family, 
which  had  been  increased  by  the  birth  of  a  daughter, 
were  staying  at  Bognor  at  the  time  when  the  news  of 
the  great  victory  of  Waterloo  reached  England.  The 
prompting  to  see  for  himself  all  that  was  happening  at 
the  centre  of  affairs  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  and 


24  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Mr.  Milnes  took  the  earliest  opportunity  of  going  to 
Brussels.  His  letters  to  his  wife  from  that  place  and 
from  Paris  are  well  worth  printing,  as  giving  con- 
temporary pictures  of  scenes  of  historic  importance. 

R.  P.  M.  to  his  Wife. 

Bruxelles,  July  2,  1815. 

MY  DEAREST  HARRIETTE, — We  arrived  here  yesterday  even- 
ing. We  had  an  unprosperous  voyage  of  thirty  hours  to  Ostend. 
I  suffered  extremely  from  sickness,  but  recovered  the  moment  I 
landed. 

We  found  Ostend  full  of  English  people  just  landed  to  join 
the  army.  Lord  Rendlesham  was  there,  who,  remembering  me 
at  Cambridge,  made  himself  known  to  me.  We  slept  at  Bruges, 
and  arrived  here  to  dinner  the  day  after.  From  Ostend  to  this 
place  they  know  nothing  whatever  of  public  events.  Here  we 
were  furnished  with  the  last  intelligence  from  Paris,  which  has 
determined  us  to  set  out  for  that  city  to-morrow  morning.  The 
moment  we  arrived  we  went  to  the  park,  as  it  is  called,  which  is 
more  like  Vauxhall  than  anything  else,  and  where  all  the  people 
promenade.  There  we  saw  Sir  James  Gambier  and  Sir  Hew 
Dalrymple,  Hamilton,  Lord  Cuningham,  Lambe  and  Lady 
Caroline,  &c. 

As  we  determined  to  set  off  for  Paris,  there  was  no  time  to 
lose  in  seeing  Waterloo,  and  Sir  J.  G.  borrowed  for  us  horses 
belonging  to  Colonel  Vigoureux,  who  is  wounded  and  laid  up. 
We  set  off  at  nine  in  the  morning  to  view  the  field  of  this  dread- 
ful combat,  and  we  passed  several  hours  there.  Colonel  Dash- 
wood,  who  was  in  the  action,  accompanied  us.  The  battle  was 
fought  in  a  large  open  field  sown  with  rye,  so  that  the  whole 
plain  is  now  covered  with  str%w.  There  were  some  hundred 
women  and  children  collecting-  whatever  fragments  they  could 
pick  up,  and  we  have  brought  away  several  scraps  ourselves,  such 
as  tricoloured  cockades,  feathers,  and  French  song-books,  &c.,  &c., 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  25 

which  I  will  give  you  on  my  return.  The  immense  number 
of  graves  are  evidence  of  the  carnage ;  but  we  did  not  require 
the  sight  of  them  to  convince  us  of  it,  for  the  air  was  quite 
pestilential,  and  at  one  time  made  me  quite  ill.  There  is  nothing 
now  remaining  on  the  field  of  battle  but  the  French  cannon,  of 
which  I  counted  1 33  pieces,  and  military  caps,  which  the  country 
people  do  not  think  worth  taking  away.  The  situation  of  these 
caps  showed  where  the  battle  had  raged  most  violently.  I  am 
so  little  of  a  soldier,  I  do  not  see  the  advantage  of  our  position 
over  that  of  the  French,  who  attacked  us.  The  ascent  to  it  is 
so  gradual.  The  Duke  of  Richmond,  who  was  Wellington's 
aide-de-camp,  told  Beckford  that  the  Duke  actually  laughed 
when  the  French  came  up  to  attack  our  squares,  his  confidence 
was  such  of  their  invincibility ;  and  nothing  can  better  show 
you  his  extraordinary  calmness  than  that  when  he  first  was  told 
of  Buonaparte's  attack,  and  that  he  was  within  fifteen  miles  of 
Brussels,  when  he  got  the  despatch  at  a  ball,  he  went  out  for  a 
couple  of  hours,  gave  every  order  requisite  for  the  movements 
of  the  army,  and  then  joined  the  dance,  and  kept  it  up  all  night. 
This  extraordinary  coolness  had  the  effect  of  calming  much  of 
the  alarm  Buonaparte's  incursion  had  created.  Brussels  is  full 
of  wounded.  I  have  only  seen  Vigoureux,  who  was  shot  in  the 
leg.  At  every  window  in  this  town  there  is  sitting  a  wounded 
soldier.  You  would  be  sorry  to  hear  of  poor  Henry  Milnes's 
death ;  it  was  throughout  very  affecting.  He  was  brought  in 
on  the  Monday,  quite  naked,  having  been  stripped  in  the  night 
by  the  Belgians  and  thrown  into  a  ditch.  Sir  J.  Gambier  was 
with  him  frequently.  He  lived  a  week.  Dashwood,  who  was 
in  the  same  regiment,  says  he  behaved  most  gallantly.  Through 
the  day  he  defended  the  farmhouse  of  Hougoumont,  which  you 
may  remember  Wellington  says  the  French  could  never  take. 
He  was  shot  through  the  back  as  he  was  turning  round. 

It  may  be  some  time  before  I  write  again,  as  the  communica- 
tions between  Paris  and  England  are  not  restored.  I  saw  Louis's 
first  entree,  and  don't  doubt  I  shall  see  this.  It  is  undeniable 
that  the  wonderful  valour  of  the  English  at  Waterloo  has  seated 


26  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

him  on  the  throne,  and  yet  you  cannot  talk  here  to  one  of  any 
party,  but  they  laugh  at  the  simplicity  of  the  Bourbons. 

In  great  haste, 
Ever  your  most  affectionate  husband, 

R.  P.  MILNES. 


R.  P.  M.  to  his  Wife. 

Paris,  July  9,  1815. 

MY  DEAREST  HAKRIETTE, — We  arrived  here  from  Brussels 
without  the  least  impediment,  although  we  had  been  told  the  roads 
were  shut  and  everything  destroyed  by  the  march  of  the  armies. 
Within  fifty  miles  of  Paris  there  were,  to  be  sure,  sufficient  indi- 
cations of  the  neighbourhood  of  armies,  as  we  could  get  no 
horses  to  proceed  with,  nor  anything  to  eat  whilst  we  had  to  stay. 
The  horses  were  in  requisition  for  the  British  ammunition,  and 
everything  that  was  left  to  eat  was  devoured  by  Louis  XVIII. 
and  his  valiant  soldiers.  It  was  at  Senlis  that  we  overtook  this 
precious  assemblage,  and  these  wretches,  who  were  covered  with 
gold  and  had  not  a  shilling  in  their  pockets,  and  many  of  them 
covered  with  armour  from  head  to  foot,  were  all  at  breakfast 
there.  We  saw  a  marquis  drink  four  cups  of  coffee  and  eat 
eight  artichokes.  If  you  ask  me  what  I  was  most  amused  with, 
either  in  my  former  visit  here,  or  in  the  present,  it  was  this 
scene  which  Louis's  court  and  army  displayed.  They  moved  on 
at  about  the  rate  of  six  miles  a  day,  and  yesterday  afternoon 
entered  Paris.  Old  Bliicher,  however,  had  made  a  corps  of 
50,000  Prussians  file  through  the  town  an  hour  before,  and  with 
this  intimation  there  was  a  sufficient  cry  of  "  Vivent  les  Bour- 
bons/7 When  we  first  arrived  here,  although  Buonaparte  had 
abdicated  a  fortnight,  and  our  and  the  Prussian  armies  were 
encamped  under  the  walls,  the  tricoloured  flag  was  flying,  and 
you  did  not  see  a  bit  of  white  ribbon  in  Paris.  I  don't  know 
that  I  would  conclude  from  this  that  Buonaparte  has  more 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  27 

friends  than  Louis;  but  I  am  sure  that  one  adherent  of  one  is 
worth  a  hundred  of  the  other,  and  I  cannot  but  admire  the  faith- 
fulness of  their  devotion  to  his  memory.  The  army,  however, 
whose  attachment  to  him  no  disaster  could  have  shaken,  was 
utterly  dissolved  at  Waterloo.  Sixty  thousand  are  with  Davoust, 
but  nobody  thinks  about  them,  as  it  is  known  that  the  old 
soldiers  are  destroyed.  There  is  not  one  amongst  the  Frenchmen 
who  all  talked  last  year  of  their  having  been  betrayed  to  the 
Allies,  not  one  who  affects  to  extenuate  this  complete  defeat  by 
the  English.  The  Prussians  are  allowed  no  further  share  in  this 
victory  than  they  deserve — which  is  none  at  all.  They  have 
pillaged  and  burnt  along  their  line  of  march,  and  their  whole 
army,  amounting  to  about  100,000  men,  have  been  paraded 
through  Paris.  You  may  imagine  how  much  the  comparison  is 
in  our  favour.  The  officers  and  men,  however,  may  come  in 
individually  when  they  please.  The  first  place  we  went  to  on 
our  arrival  was  the  House  of  Representatives.  I  was  anxious  to 
see  an  assembly  of  thorough  Jacobins,  and  there  was  no  time  to 
lose.  The  order  for  their  dissolution  came  the  evening  of  the 
same  day.  A  pretty  debate  it  was,  as  the  orator  never  got 
through  his  first  sentence  before  a  dozen  jumped  up  and  began 
answering  him  at  the  same  time.  All  he  had  to  do  was  to  get 
into  a  violent  rage  so  as  to  be  heard  out,  which  they  seldom 
permitted.  After  a  couple  of  hours  of  this  tumult,  they  passed 
a  law  that  the  King  should  have  no  power  to  pardon  any  Min- 
ister they  impeached ;  and  they  went  on  in  this  kind  of  way, 
although  they  must  have  known  they  had  not  a  vestige  of  power 
to  legislate  left  them.  Sebastiani,  Garat,  and  the  other  violent 
instruments  of  the  Revolution,  were  the  leaders.  All  this  is  at 
an  end,  and  the  Bourbons  are  now  seated  for  as  many  centuries  as 
they  please,  if  they  possess  common  discretion.  They  have 
shown  none  hitherto,  and  if  the  Allied  Armies  were  withdrawn  and 
they  go  on  doating  as  they  did  before,  it  will  be  over  with  them 
a  second  time :  but  they,  or  rather  Talleyrand  for  them,  will 
know  better,  and  by-and-by  they  may  begin  to  be  respected. 
We  were  told  it  was  right  to  leave  our  names  with  the  Duke  of 


28  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Wellington.  As  we  entered  the  court  we  met  him.  He  knew 
me  at  once,  and  was  as  civil  as  he  is  to  anybody.  As  we  were 
talking,  an  old  French  grandee  came  to  call.  The  Duke  saw  him 
and  ran  away,  and  we  left  the  Frenchman  running  after  him.  I 
never  saw  anyone  looking  better  and  happier  than  the  Duke.  He 
has  written  to  know  whether  he  can  take  Donnington,  Lord 
Moira's  place  in  Leicestershire,  that  he  may  hunt — he  says  we 
have  behaved  so  handsomely  to  him  he  will  have  a  house  of  his 
own  building. 

I  think  I  told  you  in  my  other  letter  that  he  supped  at 
Waterloo  after  the  battle,  and  talked  it  over  as  he  would  a  fox- 
chase,  but  after  this  first  joy  was  over  he  was  much  affected 
at  our  loss,  and  the  surgeon  who  attended  General  Delancey  told 
me  that  when  he  communicated  his  death  to  the  Duke  he  cried 
like  a  child.  Both  Beckford  and  I  have  been  unceasing* in  our 
pains  to  get  at  every  important  fact  respecting  Waterloo.  We 
have  had  no  two  accounts  that  agreed,  except  that  all  are  of 
opinion  it  was  twenty  to  one  we  lost  the  battle,  because  it  was 
twenty  to  one  the  Duke  was  killed.  I  think  three  officers  out 
of  four  we  have  spoken  to  say  even  as  it  was  there  was  a  time 
when  they  gave  it  up.  They  felt  no  alarm  that  the  French 
cavalry  or  infantry  could  have  broken  our  squares,  but  they 
thought  the  fire  of  250  pieces  of  cannon  must  have  annihilated 
them,  and  it  was  from  these  alone  they  actually  suffered.  I  find 
there  is  no  truth  in  the  Duke's  having  placed  himself  in  our 
squares  for  safety.  He  was  always  much  more  exposed,  and 
moving  to  wherever  the  attack  was  hottest  to  encourage  the 
soldiers.  I  dined  with  Barnard  yesterday.  The  Duke  has  made 
him  Governor  of  Paris.  I  take  his  opinion  as  much  the  most 
valuable  of  any  we  have  had.  He  says  that  Waterloo  was  not  as 
near  being  lost  as  Talavera,  but  that  had  it  been  lost  we  had  no 
second  position  to  take,  and  that  not  one  man  could  have  escaped 
out  of  the  army.  Almost  all  the  infantry  officers  (especially 
the  Guards)  complained,  and  Barnard  says  that  our  Hussars 
have  never  been  knocked  about  like  the  infantry.  Barnard  says 
he  could  have  told  in  the  battle  what  regiments  had  served  in 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  29 

Spain.  About  half  our  accounts  make  out  that  the  Dutch  and 
other  troops  fought  admirably.  Barnard  says  they  ran  away  in 
his  part  of  the  line,  but  he  hears  they  behaved  well  elsewhere. 
As  he  was  carried  into  Brussels  wounded,  the  Belgians  who  had 
taken  off  were  plundering-  in  waggons  on  every  side.  There  is 
no  second  opinion,  however,  on  the  point  that,  had  the  English 
been  worsted,  Belgians,  Brunswickers,  and  all  would  have  turned 
against  us.  The  conviction  that  I  have  come  to  from  all  these 
joint  representations  is  that  no  one  (I  hardly  except  the  Duke  of 
Wellington)  knows  all  about  a  battle,  and  that  when  fighting  is 
going  on  for  a  mile  at  the  same  time,  it  is  impossible  for  anyone 
to  be  informed  much  better  than  we  in  England  of  what  is  pass- 
ing at  more  than  100  yards  on  his  right  hand  or  his  left;  and, 
as  the  action  is  maintained  differently  at  different  points,  there 
cannot  but  be  opposite  opinions  upon  it.  We  hired  horses  at 
Senlis,  from  a  private  person,  to  take  us  on  to  Paris.  We  found 
all  our  army  encamped  around  the  town.  The  day  was  sunshiny, 
and  the  multitude  of  the  tents,  and  the  glitter  of  the  scarlet  of 
our  soldiers,  was  inexpressibly  beautiful.  The  gates  were  not 
given  up  till  the  following  day,  and  the  Duke  advised  us  not  to 
enter  the  town.  We  heard,  however,  from  every  quarter  there 
was  not  the  least  danger,  and  we  found  none.  They  simply 
asked  us  at  the  gates  whether  we  were  officers ;  and,  being  the 
first  to  enter,  we  had  the  town  to  ourselves,  and  we  hired  for  a  week 
a  beautiful  range  of  rooms  for  five  guineas  that  the  day  after  they 
would  charge  fifteen  for.  Your  brother  Carleton  is  quartered  at 
an  obscure  village ;  he  had  his  horse  shot  under  him  at  Waterloo. 
It  was  with  infinite  trouble  I  found  out  where  his  regiment  was, 
and  I  expect  him  here  to-day.  I  shall  write  again  befoi'e  I  leave 
Paris,  and  hope  my  next  will  inform  you  when  that  will  be.  I 
have  kept  very  well.  Beckford  is  everything  agreeable  as  a 
companion.  Lord  Kinnaird  is  here.  Lord  Combermere  lodges 
at  this  hotel.  It  is  where  we  were  before.  Pray  send  the  sheet 
enclosed  in  this  to  my  mother.  I  direct  this  to  Bognor,  where 
remember  me  with  every  kindness  to  all.  Paris  is  every  way 
quieter  than  last  year.  Much  fewer  people,  much  better  hours. 


30  TEE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Read  such  parts  of  my  letter  to  dear  little  Richy  as  he  can 
understand. 

I  am,  dearest  Harriette, 

Your  most  affectionate  husband, 

R.  P.  MlLNBS. 

After  returning  from  his  trip  to  Paris,  Mr.  Milnes, 
with  his  wife  and  children,  took  up  his  residence  at 
Thorne  Hall,  a  small  country  residence  near  Doncaster. 
Near  Thorne  were  the  Sykehouse  and  Fishlake  estates, 
belonging  to  Mr.  Milnes's  family,  and  it  was  for  the 
purpose  of  reclaiming  some  waste  lands  which  formed 
part  of  the  property  that  Mr.  Milnes  went  to  live 
at  Thorne.  He  varied  his  engagements  as  a  scientific 
agriculturist  and  country  squire  by  frequent  visits  to 
town.  Both  he  and  his  brother  Bodes  were  not  ex- 
empt from  that  addiction  to  gambling  which  was 
the  great  social  vice  of  the  time.  Yet,  in  comparison 
with  his  brother,  Mr.  Milnes  was  moderate  and  prudent 
in  his  play.  "Jack,"  he  once  said  to  a  friend  of  his, 
"  if  you  ever  hear  anyone  say  I  am  a  gambler,  contra- 
dict it.  I  never  lost  a  thousand  a  night  but  twice." 
Although  he  had  ceased  to  take  any  part  in  Parliament- 
ary life,  and  in  spite  of  his  reserved  disposition,  he  was 
a  favourite  in  society,  where  he  was  admired  alike  for 
his  good  looks,  his  polished  and  courtly  manners,  and 
the  talents  of  the  possession  of  which  he  had  given 
such  indisputable  proof. 

The  late  Lord  Leven  once  said  that,  looking  back, 
"  he  thought  Robert  Milnes  was  the  handsomest  man 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  31 

he  had  ever  seen ;  his  small  head  and  the  expression  of 
his   countenance   being  quite   unequalled,  and  bearing 
such  a  stamp  of  genius  and  high  breeding."     If  he  was 
thus  a  favourite  in  Mayfair  and  St.  James's,  he  was  not 
less  distinguished  in  that  country  life  to  which  he  was 
before  everything  else  devoted.     He  was  a  wonderful 
rider,   and  in  following  the  hounds  was  as  a  rule  facile 
princeps.     A  story  is  told  about  him  which  appears  to 
prove  that  good  horsemanship  has  a  distinct  pecuniary 
value.    He  was  hunting  in  Leicestershire,  and  riding  a 
horse   which   he  had  bought  for  £60  because  no  one 
could   be  found  who  could  manage  it  except  himself. 
Lord  Foley  came  up  to  him  at  the  close  of  a  splendid 
run,  during  which  Mr.   Milnes  had  led  the  field,  and 
asked  if  the  horse  was  to   be  bought.     No,   was   the 
reply,    he   would  not  part  with  the  horse,  because  it 
suited   him.     "  What !    for    no   price  ? "    asked    Lord 
Foley.     "  Not  for  less  than  a  thousand,"  he  answered. 
Lord  Foley  said  he  could  not  give  that,  but  should  be 
happy  to  give  six  hundred  guineas  and  the  two  horses 
he  had  been  riding  that  day.    Mr.  Milnes's  knowledge  of 
horseflesh  made  him  perceive  that  the  offer  was  more 
than  sufficient.     The  bargain  was  struck  at  once,  and 
as  Mr.  Milnes  the  next  day  sold  one  of  the  horses  he 
had  received  in  exchange  for  £250,  he  was  no  small 
gainer  by  the  transaction,    the   horse   which   he  kept 
being  the  famous  Blue  Euin.    Courage  in  riding  was,  in 
his  case  as  in  that  of  most  men,  allied  to  courage  of  an- 
other description.     Once   in  the  year   1816,  when  he 
was  staying  at  Fryston,  a  large  gang  of  poachers  were 


32  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

discovered  at  work  in  the  woods.  Mr.  Milnes  was  called 
out  of  bed  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  receive  the 
information  that  after  a  battle  royal  between  the 
poachers  and  the  watchers,  the  latter  had  been  defeated, 
some  of  them  being  seriously  hurt.  He  at  once  went 
to  the  scene  of  the  conflict,  and  saw  the  ringleader,  a 
notorious  person,  just  leaving  the  spot.  He  ran  up  to 
him  and  arrested  him,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the 
rest  of  the  gang  were  at  a  very  short  distance ;  the  man 
broke  loose,  and  in  trying  to  escape  jumped  into  a  lime 
quarry.  Mr.  Milnes,  without  a  moment's  hesitation, 
jumped  after  him  and  secured  his  prisoner,  who  had 
broken  his  leg  in  his  desperate  leap.  Among  the 
friends  of  his  early  manhood  was  the  well-known  Beau 
Brummel,  of  whom  we  shall  obtain  some  glimpses  in 
subsequent  pages  of  this  narrative.  That  Mr.  Milnes 
himself  was  not  altogether  free  from  that  spirit  of 
dandyism  which  was  the  conspicuous  characteristic  of 
Mr.  Brummel,  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  his 
tailor's  bill  for  waistcoats  alone — the  waistcoats  being, 
of  course,  the  gorgeously  embroidered  silken  vestments 
of  the  day — amounted  on  an  average  to  £500  per 
annum. 

In  the  year  1820,  after  the  recovery  of  Mrs.  Milnes 
and  her  little  girl  from  a  serious  attack  of  scarlet  fever, 
the  family  paid  a  visit  to  the  Continent. 

From  Mrs.  Milnes's  Journal,  1820. 

Left  Thome  June  28th,  the  party  consisting  of  ourselves, 
our  little  boy  and  girl  in  the  inside,  the  man-servant  and  a  maid- 


PARENTAGE    AND   BIRTH.  33 

servant  on  the  box.  We  arrived  at  Jordan's  Hotel,  St.  James's 
Street,  June  30th.  "We  had  hardly  sat  down  to  dinner  when, 
hearing  a  noise  in  the  street,  we  saw  a  wretched  motley  mob  of 
about  two  hundred  boys  and  rabble  drawing  the  carriage  of  the 
Queen  up  St.  James's  Street.  Billy  Austen  sat  on  the  box 
waving  his  handkerchief.  It  was  altogether  a  very  poor 
exhibition.  The  succeeding  three  days  I  dined  at  my  dear 
brother  Galway's  in  Hertford  Street. 

Mr.  Milnes  had  General  Byng  and  other  gentlemen  to  dinner 
on  the  Sunday,  and  after  dining  at  my  brother's,  Richard  and  I 
accompanied  them  to  the  Lock  to  hear  a  very  eloquent  ex- 
tempore preacher,  Dr.  Thorpe.  On  our  return  home  in  a  sedan 
chair,  a  carriage  drove  against  us,  and  the  sedan  chair  was 
thrown  down  with  great  violence.  My  little  boy  never  thought 
of  himself,  but  called  out  in  an  agony,  "  Oh,  my  mamma  is 
killed!" 

Whilst  they  were  in  London,  Mr.  Milnes  took  his 
son  to  the  House  of  Commons.  There  is  no  record  of 
the  impression  which  the  scene  made  on  the  mind  of 
the  boy,  but  one  may  well  believe  that  this  return  to 
the  scene  of  his  youthful  triumphs  had  a  peculiar 
interest  for  the  father  himself.  In  later  years  a  member 
of  the  family  recalled  him  as  he  appeared  not  long 
before  his  death,  walking  up  and  down  in  the  breakfast- 
room  at  Fryston,  listening  to  his  sister  repeating  a  part 
of  Gray's  "  Elegy,"  and  himself  taking  up  the  words, 
"  The  applause  of  listening  senates  to  command,"  in  a 
tone  so  emphatic  that  when  he  left  the  room  all  present 
knew  that  the  lines  had  revived  old  feelings  and  old 
memories  in  his  breast.  This  visit  to  London  was 
really  the  introduction  of  Richard  Monckton  Milnes  to 
the  scenes  with  which  he  was  destined  to  be  so  long 


34  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOVGHTON. 

and  so  intimately  associated.  He  went  through  much 
sight-seeing  in  the  care  of  a  servant,  and  it  is  recorded 
that  during  one  morning  he  spent  a  pound  in  the 
entrance  fees  which  he  paid  to  different  shows  and 
places  of  interest.  From  London  the  family  went  to 
Dieppe,  where  a  tutor  and  companion  was  engaged  for 
Richard  ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milnes  intending  to  make  a 
trip  to  Paris. 

From  Mrs.  Milnes' s  Journal. 

Almost  the  first  thing  the  morning  after  we  arrived,  I 
looked  out  and  saw  Richard  standing  by  the  crier  and  repeating 
after  him  the  story  he  was  relating  of  a  murder.  He  had 
already  been  to  the  churches,  where  he  offered  to  escort  me,  and 
having  seen  the  people  cross  themselves,  I  turned  round  and  saw 
him  doing  tbe  same. 

On  returning  to  Dieppe  from  Paris  the  parents 
found  that  although  Richard  had  improved  in  his 
knowledge  of  French,  in  his  general  appearance  he  had 
deteriorated  greatly.  The  mother  was  naturally  anxious 
as  to  the  health  of  her  son,  and  would  fain  have  kept 
him  with  her,  but  Mr.  Milnes  wished  to  take  him  at 
once  to  school ;  and  accordingly  crossing  from  Dieppe, 
lie  set  off  with  him  by  coach  and  travelled  straight 
through  to  Yorkshire.  The  school  where  the  boy  had 
already  spent  some  months,  and  to  which  he  now 
returned,  was  kept  by  the  Rev.  W.  Richardson,  and 
was  situated  at  Hundhill  Hall,  not  far  from  Pontefract. 
Out  of  health  when  he  began  the  trying  journey  from 
Dieppe,  the  child  was  thoroughly  ill  when  he  reached 
his  destination,  and  almost  immediately  afterwards  he 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  as 

was  prostrated  by  an  attack  so  severe  that  for  several 
months  his  life  was  in  imminent  danger.  During  that 
time  he  was  tenderly  nursed  by  his  mother,  but  it  was 
not  until  the  summer  of  1821  that  he  was  really  restored 
to  health.  One  result  of  this  illness  was  to  prevent  his 
entering  any  public  school.  His  father  had  meant  to 
send  him  to  Harrow ;  but  the  plan  had  to  be  abandoned 
because  of  his  delicate  health,  and  his  education  up  to 
the  time  of  his  going  to  the  University  was  carried  on 
by  private  tutors. 

Mr.  Robert  Milnes  continued  meanwhile  to  lead  his 
pleasant  life  as  country  gentleman  and  farmer  at  his  house 
at  Thorne.  Between  him  and  his  son,  as  the  latter 
grew  up  towards  manhood,  the  relations,  though  always 
friendly,  were  somewhat  peculiar.  The  father's  desire 
to  see  his  son  making  a  great  position  for  himself  in 
public  life  was  very  strong.  His  critical  attitude  was 
maintained  even  towards  his  own  child,  and  though  he 
delighted  in  discussing  questions  of  politics  and  history 
with  the  members  of  his  family,  he  did  so  rather  in  the 
character  of  a  philosopher  than  of  a  parent.  Naturally 
enough,  Richard  Milnes  on  his  part,  though  always 
attached  to  his  father  and  proud  of  his  distinguished 
abilities,  was  not  drawn  towards  him  in  that  full  outflow 
of  filial  love  which  a  parent  less  critical  and  fastidious 
might  have  evoked.  Even  as  a  boy,  Richard  Milnes's 
fondness  for  paradox  was  apparent ;  probably  it  had  its 
birth  in  a  boyish  desire  if  he  could  to  mystify,  or  at  all 
events  to  entertain,  a  father  whose  interest  in  him  was 
apparently  mainly  intellectual.  The  two  represented 


36  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

distinctly  antagonistic  spirits,  and  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence, even  in  the  boyhood  of  Richard  Milnes,  they 
were  frequently  in  collision  on  matters  of  opinion. 
Mr.  Milnes  treated  his  son,  even  in  his  youth,  with 
a  frankness  not  common  between  parent  and  child ;  he 
expected  Richard  to  discuss  all  public  questions  freely 
with  him,  and  delighted  in  serious  argument  with  the 
boy  on  questions  which  few  young  men  are  inclined 
to  consider  until  they  have  passed  their  first  youth. 
One  day,  after  the  son  had  attained  to  manhood,  he 
was  denouncing  to  his  father  the  want  of  intelligence 
v.  hich  characterised  the  farmers  of  England. 

"You  know  such-and-such  a  farm,  Richard?"  said 
Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes.  "Yes,"  was  the  reply.  "Well, 
miserably  deficient  and  wretched  as  I  admit  the  result 
of  the  education  you  have  had  has  proved,  yet  that  farm 
has  paid  for  it." 

The  pleasant  life  at  Thome  was  brought  to  an  end 
in  1828.  Shortly  after  Richard  Milnes  had  entered 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  Mr.  Milnes  found  that  it 
was  desirable  for  a  time  to  economise  his  resources,  as, 
owing  to  circumstances  over  which  he  himself  had  no 
control,  the  cost  of  keeping  up  a  country  house,  with  its 
varied  hospitalities,  had  become  too  great  for  him.  He 
determined,  therefore,  to  remove  his  family  to  the  Con- 
tinent, and,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  course  of  this  nar- 
rative, their  stay  abroad — chiefly  in  Italy — lasted  for 
several  years. 

It  was  owing  to  the  misfortunes  of  his  brother 
Eodes  that  Mr.  Milnes  found  it  necessary  to  take  this 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  37 

step.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  the  story  of 
Eodes  Milnes.  He  was  a  typical  representative  of 
fashionable  society  in  the  days  in  which  he  had  the 
misfortune  to  live — those  of  the  Regency.  Witty, 
hospitable,  good-tempered,  a  keen  sportsman,  and  a 
devoted  patron  of  the  turf,  he  was  extremely  popular  in 
all  the  circles  in  which  he  moved.  The  friend  of  the 
Prince  Regent  and  of  Beau  Brummel,  he  had  long 
moved  in  circles  in  which  a  reckless  extravagance  was 
regarded  as  something  like  a  virtue.  He  was  addicted 
to  gambling,  betted  freely  on  his  own  horses,  and  played 
a  prominent  part  in  the  gaieties  alike  of  York  and  of 
London.  His  racing  associate  was  Mr.  Petre,  of  Staple- 
ton,  and  their  stable  won  the  St.  Leger  no  fewer  than 
five  times  in  the  eight  years  between  1822  and  1830. 
Nobody  could  have  been  more  careless  in  money  matters 
than  Rodes  Milnes.  Is  it  not  told  of  him,  as  an 
example  of  his  open-handed  extravagance,  that,  after  a 
successful  day  at  York  races,  he  and  Lord  Glasgow 
stationed  themselves  at  the  window  of  the  inn  where 
they  were  staying,  and  stopping  every  passer-by,  insisted 
that  he  or  she  should  drink  a  glass  of  wine  with  them  ? 
There  are,  indeed,  many  traditions  of  the  same  kind 
attaching  to  the  name  of  Rodes  Milnes,  all  telling  the 
same  tale,  all  conjuring  up  before  us  the  figure  of  the 
fashionable,  reckless,  extravagant,  good-tempered  rake 
who  was  one  of  the  types  of  the  period.  There  could 
be  only  one  end  to  such  a  story  as  his.  His  debts 
multiplied,  his  resources  came  to  an  end ;  and  his 
brother  had  to  intervene  on  his  behalf.  Though 


38  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

under  no  legal  obligation  to  do  so,  he  undertook  the  pay- 
ment of  Rodes's  debts.  Thus  it  was  that  Mr.  Robert 
Milnes  found  it  desirable  to  remove  from  Thome  to  the 
Continent,  where  the  family  resided  from  1828  to  1835. 

In  subsequent  chapters  the  story  of  this  long  so- 
journ abroad  will  be  found  told  in  the  letters  of  Richard 
Monckton  Milnes  and  his  friends.  I  mention  it  here  in 
order  that  I  may  complete  the  brief  narration  of  the 
life  of  Mr.  Robert  Pemberton  Milnes. 

By  the  death  of  the  Dowager  Lady  Galway,  who 
was  not  only  his  wife's  stepmother,  but  his  own  second 
cousin,  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  became  in  1835  the 
owner  of  the  Bawtry  estate,  which  had  first  been  acquired 
by  his  great-uncle,  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes,  of  Wakefield. 
The  death  of  his  own  mother  in  the  same  year  placed 
him  in  full  possession  of  the  family  property,  and  he 
was  enabled  not  only  to  return  to  England,  but  to  take 
up  bis  residence  once  more  at  Fryston.  At  Fryston  he 
spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in  the  fashion  which  has  al- 
ready been  described;  reading  much,  writing  a  little, 
meditating — in  his  own  manner  always — upon  public 
affairs,  occasionally  emerging  from  his  retirement  to  take 
part  in  great  political  meetings  at  York,  and  to  remind 
his  fellow- Yorkshiremen  of  the  fact  that  the  broai  shire 
still  possessed  a  great  orator  of  its  own,  and  ever  receiving 
with  a  graceful  and  dignified  hospitality  the  many  guests 
whom  his  son  brought  to  Fryston,  or  who  went  thither 
in  order  to  renew  their  early  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
Pemberton  Milnes  himself.  Many  glimpses  of  his  life 
and  character  will  bo  found  in  future  pages  of  this  book, 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  39 

but  only  one  more  episode  in  an  almost  unique  career 
need  be  mentioned  at  this  point.  The  reader  has  al- 
ready seen  that  it  was  the  refusal  of  Pemberton  Milnes 
to  take  office  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  Perceval  in  1809  which 
led  to  the  introduction  of  Lord  Palmerston  to  his 
long  career  as  a  Minister.  Many  years  afterwards, 
Lord  Palmerston  and  Mr.  Milnes  were  again  brought 
into  contact  under  very  different  circumstances.  Most 
unexpectedly  on  his  own  part,  Mr.  Milnes,  in  the  month 
of  February,  1856,  received  the  following  letter  from  his 
old  friend,  who  was  then  Prime  Minister : — 

144,  Piccadilly,  W.,  February  6th,  1856. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — The  Queen  has  determined  to  make 
two  or  three  hereditary  peers  in  order  to  show  that  the  creation 
of  a  life-peerage  in  the  person  of  a  law  lord  is  not  meant  to  be 
the  beginning  of  any  general  change  in  the  constitution  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  but  is  only  intended  as  a  means  of 
supplying  a  temporary  want  without  entailing  a  future  incon- 
venience ;  and  Her  Majesty  has  been  graciously  pleased  to 
authorise  me  to  offer  you  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Peers. 

We  began  public  life  together,  and  it  was  to  your  declining 
the  office  of  Secretary  at  War  that  I  owe  my  appointment  to 
that  post.  We  have  not  been  much  thrown  in  contact  of  late 
years,  and  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  that  the  renewal  of 
personal  intercourse  between  us  should  consist  in  my  being  the 
channel  of  a  communication  to  you  which  I  trust  may  prove 
acceptable  to  you,  but  which,  at  all  events,  it  is  very  gratifying 
to  me  to  be  able  to  make. 

Your  personal  position  and  your  first-rate  abilities  would 
make  you  a  valuable  addition  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  that 
body  will,  I  trust,  have  the  advantage  of  your  accession  to  it. 

Yours  sincerely, 
E.  PEMBERTON  MILNES,  Esq.  PALMERSTON. 


40  THE    LIFE    OF   WED   HOUGHTON. 

It  was  characteristic  of  the  man  to  whom  this 
very  flattering  offer  was  made,  that  he  should  decline 
it  without  consulting  anybody,  not  even  his  own  son, 
to  whom,  of  course,  such  a  proposal  was  a  matter 
of  the  first  interest.  His  refusal  was  as  follows : — 

Fryston,  February  1th,  1856. 

DEAR  LORD  PALMERSTON, — I  have  received  your  letter 
offering  me  a  hereditary  peerage.  The  first  impression  from 
it  upon  me  is  the  deepest  gratitude,  and  my  humblest  thank- 
fulness to  the  Queen,  which  I  beg  you  will  express  for  me 
to  Her  Majesty. 

To  yourself  I  can  only  say  it  continues  the  regard  and 
love  I  have  ever  had  in  sincerity  for  you. 

After  some  hours'  reflection  I  think  that  I  could  not  accept 
it  with  perfect  honour. 

Although,  after  the  termination  of  the  last  war,  I  could  go 
on  no  longer  with  our  old  Tory  party  when  it  refused  emanci- 
pation and  the  enfranchisement  of  our  large  towns  (in  so  far 
showing  I  have  no  very  illiberal  instincts),  yet,  after  the  Reform 
Bill,  I  deemed  it  right  to  rejoin  the  party,  and  there  I  have 
since  remained. 

It  is  from  no  vanity  I  say  I  am  now  looked  to,  in  York- 
shire, as  the  head  of  it. 

I  could  give  a  conscientious  support  to  your  Administration 
at  present,  but  I  foresee  that  questions  will  come  on  in  which  I 
could  not  concur  with  many  of  your  colleagues. 

Mr.  Bright  makes  this  certain;  and  how  could  I  vote  against 
a  Ministry  which  had  raised  me  to  the  peerage  ?  It  is  a  spotless 
disinterestedness  only  which,  in  the  present  age,  can  maintain 
for  the  House  of  Lords  its  real  power  and  dignity,  and  my 
impression  is  that  this  would  be  compromised  in  my  own  person, 
by  my  acceptance  of  the  honour. 

Another  less  important  reason  is  that  were  I  made  a  peer,  I 
should  be  utterly  inefficient  in  the  House  of  Peers.  Born  the 


PARENTAGE    AND    BIRTH.  41 

same  year  as  yourself,  I  am  ten  years  older,  and  though  I  might 
once  have  spoken  with  some  effect,  I  am  conscious  I  could  not 
do  so  now. 

From  these  considerations,  with  thanks  and  gratitude  un- 
bounded for  Her  Majesty's  most  gracious  offer,  I  feel  myself 
compelled  to  decline  it.  i  have  the  honour  to  be, 

R.  P.  M. 

I  need  not  say  that  no  one  person  shall  know  of  your 
communication. 

Lord  Palmerston  was  unwilling  to  lose  this  oppor- 
tunity of  testifying  his  regard  for  his  old  friend,  and  he 
was  also  anxious  to  give  pleasure  to  that  friend's  son, 
who,  at  this  time,  was  a  valuable  and  consistent  supporter 
of  his  own  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  again  unred 

O  o 

upon  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  the  acceptance  of  the  honour 
designed  for  him  by  the  Queen,  and  he  communicated 
the  offer  he  had  made  to  his  son,  Richard  Monckton 
Milnes.  The  latter  warmly  pressed  upon  his  father  the 
acceptance  of  the  peerage.  He  was,  however,  quite 
unable  to  move  him  from  the  resolution  which  he  had 
formed  to  remain  in  his  own  station — that  of  a  simple 
country  gentleman,  trusted  and  followed  by  his  local 
associates  in  politics. 

In  the  meantime,  he  put  absolutely  aside  all  thought 
of  a  return  to  that  public  life  to  which  he  had  been  so 
long  a  stranger.  "  It  is  my  wish,"  he  wrote  on  a  sheet 
of  paper  which  was  discovered  after  his  death  ("  I  know 
it  to  be  otherwise  with  Richard)  that  his  son,  if  he  lives, 
should  be  a  commoner.  With  no  disrespect  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  I  consider  there  is  no  position  higher 


42  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

than  that  of  an  English  country  gentleman."  So  Mr. 
Pemberton  Milnes  remained  consistent  to  the  last  in  his 
view  of  the  estate  in  which  he  had  been  placed  by  his 
birth.  In  youth  he  had  turned  his  back  resolutely  upon 
the  almost  irresistible  temptation  of  political  power  ;  in 
old  age  he  was  equally  resolute  in  resisting  the  allurements 
of  social  rank,  and  he  died,  as  he  had  lived,  a  commoner, 
whose  delight  it  was  to  dwell  among  his  own  people. 
It  was  after  his  death,  which  occurred  in  November, 
1858,  that  there  was  found  among  his  papers  this  touch- 
ing note,  apparently  written  soon  after  the  period  when 
the  offer  of  the  peerage  had  caused  a  temporary  renewal 
of  his  relations  with  the  Prime  Minister  : — 

DEAR  RICHARD, — Tell  Lord  Palmerston  he  has  my  dying 
remembrances,  and  I  pray,  he  having  so  soon  to  follow  me,  he 
may  ask  for  forgiveness  for  sins  committed,  by  the  atonement 
of  Jesus  Christ.  R.  P-  MILNES,  1856. 

It  was  on  receiving  this  touching  message  from  the 
man  who  had  begun  life  with  himself  that  Lord  Palmer- 
ston addressed  to  Eichard  Monckton  Milnes  the  follow- 
ing letter  : — 

Broadlands,  12  Nov.,  1858. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  am  greatly  grieved  at  the  event  which 
your  letter  just  received  announces,  but  which  the  accounts  we 
had  previously  had  led  us  to  expect  as  too  certain.  I  was  deeply 
touched  by  the  kind  remembrance  which  you  were  commissioned 
to  convey  to  me,  and  which  I  shall  carefully  preserve  in  recollec- 
tion of  one  of  my  earliest  friends,  whose  brilliant  talents  excited 
universal  admiration  at  a  time  of  life  when  young  men  in  general 
are  only  beginning  to  feel  their  way  in  their  public  career. 


PARENTAGE   AND    BIRTH.  43 

Lady  Palmerston  desires  me  to  beg  you  to  accept  her 
sincerest  sympathy  on  this  affecting  occasion. 

Yours  sincerely, 

PALMERSTON. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  revived  the 
recollections  of  his  early  distinction,  and  among  the 
letters  received  by  his  son  on  the  occasion  is  one  from 
Lord  Broughton,  in  which  he  tells  how  the  men  of  Mr. 
Milnes's  own  time  were  wont  to  regard  him  as  the 
Admirable  Crichton  of  their  day ;  one  in  whom  all  virtues 
and  all  accomplishments  seemed  to  be  naturally  com- 
bined ;  who  could  convert  a  hostile  majority  in  the 
House  of  Commons  or  leap  a  five-barred  gate  with 
equal  ease ;  whose  good  looks  and  fine  manners  made 
him  the  favourite  of  all  women,  and  whose  genuine, 
though  undemonstrative,  kindness  of  heart  and  hospi- 
tality made  all  men  cherish  his  friendship.  His  career, 
as  the  reader  has  seen,  left  the  promise  of  his  youth 
wholly  unfulfilled,  and  it  is  perhaps  difficult  to  point 
the  moral  of  such  a  story  ;  but  I  have  thought  it  well  to 
preface  the  fuller  record  of  the  life  of  his  son  by  this 
brief  and  imperfect  sketch  of  the  character  of  a  man  to 
whose  remarkable  qualities  full  justice  can  never  now  be 
rendered. 


CHAPTEE    II. 

EARLY    YEARS. 

The  Character  of  Monckton  Milnes's  School  Days — Cambridge — Great  Contem- 
poraries— The  Union — Ascent  in  a  Balloon — Deputation  of  the  Union  to 
Oxford — Meeting  with  W.  E.  Gladstone — College  Friendships — Arthur 
Hallam,  Alfred  Tennyson,  Sunderland — The  Apostles. 

ONE  evening  many  years  ago  Richard  Monckton 
Milnes,  who  had  been  chatting  at  the  Cosmopolitan 
Cluh,  happened  to  leave  it  rather  earlier  than  usual. 
Among  those  whom  he  left  behind  him  was  Mr.  W.  E. 
Forster.  "  I  have  many  friends,"  said  Forster,  turning  to 
the  late  Lord  Dalhousie,  "  who  would  be  kind  to  me  in 
distress,  but  only  one  who  would  be  equally  kind  to 
me  in  disgrace,  and  he  has  just  left  the  room." 

To  those  who  really  knew  Lord  Houghton,  these 
words  seem  to  furnish  the  key-note  of  his  character  and 
career. 

A  many-sided  man,  Lord  Houghton  was  known 
to  the  outer  world  as  the  poet,  the  wit,  the  brilliant 
conversationalist;  the  politician  of  cosmopolitan  know- 
ledge and  far-reaching  sympathies,  the  friend  and 
patron  of  innumerable  men  of  letters ;  a  familiar  and 
striking  figure  in  society,  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  recognised  ornaments.  One  has  but  to  men- 
tion his  name  in  order  to  conjure  up  all  these  ideas  and 


EARLY    YEARS.  45 

to  see  him  in  these  varied  aspects.  But  there  was 
another  side  to  the  nature  of  the  man  the  story  of 
whose  life  is  to  be  told  in  these  pages,  which  perhaps 
was  only  recognised  by  those  who  knew  him  best,  which 
certainly  was  never  so  fully  recognised  as  it  ought  to 
have  been  by  the  outer  world.  "  He  was  a  good  man  to 
go  to  in  distress,"  as  many  a  victim  of  trial  and  misfor- 
tune could  testify ;  a  man  whose  hand  was  as  open  as  his 
heart,  and  who  has  left  behind  him  a  thousand  memories 
of  those  deeds  of  kindness  which,  blossoming  on  the  tomb, 
give  fragrance  to  the  names  of  those  whom  we  have  lost. 
But  he  was  something  more  than  the  kind  and  generous 
friend  of  the  sick,  the  poverty-stricken,  and  the  sorrowful. 
That  whimsical  love  of  paradox  which  distinguished  him 
from  his  boyhood  upwards,  and  which  led  him  so  often 
to  puzzle  and  confound  the  dull  or  superficial,  had  its 
reflection  in  his  moral  nature.  He  was  "  a  good  man  to 
go  to  in  disgrace."  The  victim  not  of  accident  or  mis- 
fortune, but  of  his  own  passions  or  failings,  knew  that 
when  the  rest  of  the  world  had  turned  its  back  upon  him 
there  was  one  friend  to  whom  he  could  still  go,  not  to 
have  his  vices  or  his  faults  condoned,  but  to  receive  even 
in  his  disgrace  kindly  sympathy  and  counsel  from  one 
whose  views  of  life  were  at  least  never  those  of  the 
Pharisee,  one  who  could  see  not  merely  the  fall  and  the 
exposure  to  the  world's  harsh  judgment,  but  the  strong 
temptation  which  had  caused  the  fatal  slip,  and  who 
could  realise  better  than  most  how  narrow  is  the  gulf 
which  divides  the  sinner  who  has  been  found  out  from 
his  fellow-sinner  who  still  goes  undetected. 


46  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

The  life  of  Lord  Houghton  is  not  the  story  of  re- 
markable adventures  or  of  great  achievements.  Though 
a  sweet  and  graceful  singer,  dowered  with  no  ordinary 
gifts,  and  though  a  critic  of  brilliant  acuteness  and  capa- 
city, it  shall  not  be  claimed  for  him  that  he  has  inscribed 
his  name  upon  the  roll  of  letters  among  the  immortals. 
Though  a  politician  who  early  brought  to  the  handling 
of  the  great  problems  of  statecraft  a  mind  naturally 
sagacious  and  stored  with  knowledge  far  surpassing  that 
possessed  by  most  of  his  contemporaries,  Lord  Houghton 
never  won  for  himself  in  the  political  arena  that  place 
which  he  coveted  and  which  he  might  so  well  have 
claimed  by  virtue  of  his  natural  endowments,  his  keen 
interest  in  the  social  and  political  movements  of  his 
time,  and  his  unflagging  industry  in  acquiring  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  questions  of  the  day.  It  is  not  there- 
fore the  story  either  of  a  great  author  and  thinker  or  a 
successful  statesman,  which  is  to  be  told  here  ;  it  is 
rather  the  record  of  the  life  of  a  brilliant  man,  endowed 
with  a  real  measure  of  genius,  blessed  with  a  sympa- 
thetic temperament,  which,  allied  to  exceptional  social 
advantages,  enabled  him  to  become  the  friend  trusted  and 
beloved  of  such  an  array  of  men  and  women  of  distinc- 
tion as  has  probably  never  before  been  found  sharing 
the  affection  of  a  single  person,  that  we  have  to  tell. 
It  is  well,  however,  at  the  outset  of  my  story  that 
I  should  give  the  keynote  to  his  character  in  the  words 
I  have  quoted  from  the  lips  of  Forster. 

The  reader  has  seen  something  in  the  preceding 
chapter  of  the  boyhood  of  Richard  Monckton  Milnes. 


EARLY    YEARS.  47 

It  was  in  no  sense  eventful  or  remarkable.  There  are, 
it  is  true,  indications,  both  in  his  letters  and  in  the  recol- 
lections of  his  family,  of  his  early  intelligence  and  of  the 
promise  which  he  gave  of  future  distinction.  His  father, 
owing  to  the  illness  which  nearly  terminated  his  life 
when  a  boy,  did  not  send  him  to  any  great  public  school, 
and  he  was  thus  deprived  of  one  of  the  advantages 
enjoyed  by  most  men  of  his  station.  His  early  educa- 
tion was  undertaken  by  a  private  tutor,  a  Mr.  Binns, 
who  came  from  Wakefield  to  Thorne  to  superintend 
his  studies.  After  that  he  was  for  a  season  at  the 
school  of  Mr.  Richardson  at  Hundhill  Hall,  and  then 
again  the  private  tutor  was  called  in  to  prepare  him 
for  the  University.  The  first  distinct  impression  of  his 
personality  which  has  been  received  by  his  biographer 
is  that  obtained  from  a  series  of  letters  written  to  his 
mother  and  his  sister  during  a  sojourn  in  Scotland, 
whither  he  had  gone  with  his  tutor  during  the  summer 
of  1825.  There  is  not  much,  perhaps,  in  the  letters  of 
the  boy  of  sixteen,  which  need  be  reproduced  here ;  but 
one  letter  written  from  Edinburgh  may  be  given  as  a  fair 
example  of  the  state  of  his  mental  development  and  of 
the  keen  interest  in  men  and  affairs  which  even  at  that 
time  distinguished  him. 

B.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Sunday  Morning  (August,  1825). 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — It  is  now  a  week  since  I  have  heard  of 
you,  but  I  hope  it  has  originated  in  your  prosecuting-  some  plan 
for  your  pleasure  and  advantage.  I  shall  leave  this  place  with 
regret,  though  I  am  going  to  other  scenes  as  novel  and  as 


48  TEE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGRTON. 

pleasing  as  "  mine  own  romantic  town,"  as  Sir  Walter  Scott 
calls  it.  By-the-bye,  he  seems  to  be  quite  deified  here ;  from 
what  I  have  heard  he  is  very  fond  of  money,  but  Lady  Scott, 
a  Corsican,  is  so  extravagant  she  prevents  him  from  ever  getting 
rich.  His  eldest  son  is  lately  married  to  a  Miss  Jobson  with 
£100,000.  .  .  . 

Sapio  is  here ;  we  were  very  anxious  to  see  the  first  appear- 
ance last  night  in  the  Siege  of  Belgrade,  but  having  dined  at 
a  ship-builder's  at  Leith,  we  only  got  in  for  the  two  last  scenes. 
It  was  the  only  full  house  I  have  seen  here.  The  theatre  is 
much  less  patronised  than  it  deserves,  for  I  should  think  that  no 
actress  of  the  present  day  can  come  up  to  Mrs.  Siddons  in  her 
line.  Her  voice,  figure,  and  countenance  are  all  very  delightful, 
and  as  Mary  Stuart  I  should  think  she  was  inimitable.  She  has 
a  most  excellent  character,  and  has  five  children,  who  she  has 
determined  shall  none  of  them  go  to  the  stage.  The  King  paid 
her  high  compliments  when  he  saw  her.  The  next  actress  of 
note  is  Mrs.  Renaud,  who  was  once  mistress  to  the  Duke  of 
York.  She  is  seventy,  but  is  very  effective  both  in  Meg  Merrilies 
and  Helen  Macgregor.  Two  Miss  Trees  have  been  here,  neither 
superior  in  any  way. 

I  have  dined  with  Miss  Campbell,*  and  am  going  to-night  to 
pay  hei  ^  farewell  visit.  I  am  quite  amused  at  her  fondness  for 
you.  She  is  really  a  very  good  sort  of  person. 

I  have  just  received  Harriette's  letter.  Thank  her  over  and 
over  again  for  it,  and  tell  her  it  has  interested  me  exceedingly. 
I  hope  to  see  you  both  so  fat  and  rosy  I  shall  hardly  know  you. 
I  suppose  you  are  not  a  little  gay,  as  I  am  sure  every  amuse- 
ment you  enjoy  is  equally  advantageous  to  the  temperament  of 
your  mind  and  thence  to  your  body.  .  . 

Adieu. 

Your  affectionate  Son, 

R.  M.  M. 
P.S. — I  have  just  come   back  from  hearing   Dr.   Gordon. 

*  Sister  of  Thomas  Campbell  the  poet.    She  was  at  one  time  governess 
to  the  sisters  of  Mr.  B.  P.  Milnes. 


EARLY    YEARS.  49 

His  preaching-  is  very  beautiful.  I  like  the  solemnity  of  the 
Scotch  sacrament  much  better  than  ours.  ...  I  saw 
yesterday  the  first  steam  carriage  that  has  ever  been  made. 
It  is  going'  to  run,  in  a  fortnight,  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles 
an  hour.  The  engine  is  contrived  in  the  same  body  as  the 
carriage,  and  not  separate  from  it. 

What  does  Eliza  think  of  the  lion-fight  at  Wakefield  ?  I 
should  really  have  liked  very  much  to  have  been  there.  It  must 
have  been  a  noble  sight. 

In  October,  1827,  Milnes  was  entered  by  his  father 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  as  a  fellow -commoner. 
"  Arranged  Richard's  books  in  his  rooms,"  writes  Mrs. 
Milnes  in  her  journal,  under  date  October  23rd,  "and 
the  old  butler  showed  me  a  gallery  where  I  could  see 
him  dine  in  Hall  for  the  first  time.  He  sat  by  Went- 
worth,  who  was  also  just  arrived,  and  seemed  as  much 
at  home  among  all  the  dons  as  if  he  had  been  there 
for  years."  To  make  himself  at  home  wherever  he 
might  be,  was  at  all  times  the  object  of  his  ambition, 
and  there  is  ample  evidence  of  the  fact  that  before 
many  days  had  elapsed  he  felt  thoroughly  at  home  in 
the  famous  college  in  which  his  father  before  him  had 
acquired  distinction.  He  found  himself  at  Trinity  in 
the  midst  of  a  circle  of  remarkable  men.  Dr.  Words- 
worth, brother  of  the  poet,  was  the  master,  Whewell 
was  the  senior  tutor.  Connop  Thirlwall,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  St.  David's,  was  his  tutor,  whilst  among  his 
friends  were  Charles  Buller,  John  Sterling,  Richard 
Chenevix  Trench,  J.  M.  Kemble,  J.  W.  Blakesley, 
Julius  Hare,  Sunderland,  Stafford  O'Brien,  Augustus 
Fitzroy,  and  other  young  men,  some  of  whom  sub- 


50  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

sequently  achieved  distinction,  and  all  of  whom  were 
noted  either  for  their  literary  tastes  or  their  political 
ambition. 

Thirl  wall,  as  his  tutor,  naturally  exercised  a  strong 
influence  over  him.  -From  the  first  Milnes  was  drawn 
towards  the  remarkable  man  with  whom  he  was  thus 
brought  in  contact.  He  admired  him  greatly,  and, 
as  their  intimacy  increased,  a  real  affection  sprang  up 
between  them — an  affection  which  knew  no  change 
throughout  their  subsequent  lives.  In  the  "  making 
of  his  mind  "  Milnes  was  more  deeply  indebted  to  the 
future  Bishop  of  St.  David's  than  to  any  other  man. 
R.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Trinity  College,  November  1th,  1827. 

I  have  really  very  little  to  say,  since  it  is  not  easy  here  to 
find  out  any  difference  between  to-day  and  yesterday. 

I  spoke  to  Thirlwall  about  sending  game  to  his  friends.  He 
said  he  should  prefer  its  being  sent  to  him  here.  You  will  be 
amused  to  hear  that  his  visit  to  Ely  was  for  the  purpose  of  being 
ordained,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  he  got  through  his  examination 
satisfactorily.  It  is  quite  surprising  to  me  to  see  him  analyse 
my  compositions  and  detect  errors  where  I  fancied  only  beauties. 
.  .  .  I  went  last  night  to  the  Union  for  the  first  time  to 
hear  the  Catholic  claims  debated.  It  was  opened  by  a  fresh- 
man, who  made  a  complete  failure  of  the  attempt,  but  some  of 
the  speaking  afterwards  was  very  tolerable.  Charles  Campbell's 
son  was  energetic  and  fluent,  and  a  Mr.  Sterling  told  us  we  were 
going  to  have  a  revolution,  and  he  "didn't  care  if  his  hand 
should  be  first  to  lead  the  way/'  But  perhaps  the  best  was  a 
Mr.  Hawkinson  (who  wrote  a  poem  last  year  on  the  Druids, 
which  grandmamma  admired),  whose  whole  speech  was  one  con- 
tinued strain  of  sarcasm  and  irony,  so  well  managed  that  an 
honourable  gentleman  rose  and  begged  to  know  which  way  the 


EARLY   YEARS.  51 

honourable  member  intended  to  vote.  At  the  very  fullest  there 
were  about  two  hundred  in  the  room,  and  on  the  whole  there 
was  a  great  deal  more  declamation  than  argument.  The  men 
complimented  each  other  most  outrageously.  The  division  was 
sixty-eight  for  and  forty-four  against. 

There  was  not  so  much  row  here  on  the  5th  as  was  expected ; 
a  man  who  lives  on  the  next  staircase  to  mine  got  his  head 
broken,  as  he  was  standing  quietly  at  a  door,  by  the  snobs,  who 
paraded  the  town  in  large  bodies.  I  heard  Simeon  last  Sunday 
evening.  There  was  no  eloquence,  but  nothing  ridiculous.  If 
you  did  not  look  at  him  it  was  very  well;  but  his  action  is 
absurd  in  the  extreme.  He  brandishes  his  spectacles  when  he 
talks  of  the  terrible,  and  smirks  and  smiles  when  he  offers 
consolation. 

Tell  Jane,*  as  she  is  so  particularly  anxious  to  know  what  we 
eat,  that  we  have  turbot  and  lobster-sauce  three  days  out  of  the 
seven;  and  tell  Harriette  that  I  answered  her  last  letter.  I 
will  send  my  father  some  of  WhewelTs  prettiest  deductions  in 
my  next  letter. 

Like  many  another  undergraduate,  Milnes  had  hardly 
taken  up  his  residence  in  college  before  he  conceived  a 
violent  detestation  of  the  chapel  system,  and  whilst 
still  one  of  the  youngest  of  freshmen,  he  drew  up  a 
petition  to  the  Master  calling  attention  to  the  subject, 
and  pointing  out  that  whilst  the  system  of  compulsory 
attendance  at  chapel  was  perfectly  inadequate  to  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  established,  it  had  produced  a 
connection  between  the  holiest  and  the  lowest  feelings 
of  the  heart.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  audacious 
petition  was  ever  presented  to  the  authorities,  but  its 
author's  feelings  with  regard  to  attendance  at  chapel 
never  altered  throughout  his  University  career. 

*  His  aunt,  Jane  Milnes. 


52  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

December  Uh,  1827. 

Long  as  it  is  since  I  have  written,  I  have  hardly  got 
materials  for  a  letter.  My  father's  gossiping  epistle  and  yours 
received  this  morning  deserve  all  my  thanks.  Tell  him  I  wish 
I  could  look  on  the  frivolities  of  life  as  philosophically  as  he 
does.  "  Mais  les  plaisirs  meme  de  la  jeiinesse  ont  assez  d'epines ; 
pourquoi  done  diminuer  les  frivolites,  qui  sont  les  ebullitions  des 
coeurs  naives  et  pas  encore  fletris  ?  " 

Who  says  this?  I  forget.  Dr.  Spurzheim  dined  with  me 
on  Saturday,  with  Thirlwall  and  two  or  three  quiet  men.  He  is 
the  most  good-natured  creature  possible,  and  after  dinner  told 
me  from  the  conformation  of  my  head  that  "  I  should  never  do 
any  great  harm — I  had  too  much  benevolence  for  that.  I  was 
fond  of  music  and  poetry,  and 'the  two  faults  I  had  to  guard 
against  were,  first,  love  of  approbation,  an  inclination  to  like 
flattery  and  to  hear  my  own  praises ;  second,  a  propensity  to 
satire  and  ridicule,  too  fond  of  classing  people,  and  to  like 
looking  on  the  gay  side  of  things  rather  than  the  prudential — 
these  two  things  would  be  of  use  or  disadvantage  as  I  used  them 
well  or  ill."  I  need  not  tell  anyone  who  knows  me  how  true 
this  is.  One  of  his  ideas,  in  which  Thirlwall  agrees,  is  that 
parents  are  responsible  for  all  their  children's  faults  and  dis- 
positions— that  the  sins  and  virtues  of  the  parents  really  descend 
upon  the  children  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 

Tell  Harriette  I  hope  she  will  have  her  fairy  tresses  shorn 
before  we  meet  again,  that  I  may  examine  her  head  properly. 

.  .  I  saw  Matthews  last  night  for  an  hour  or  two.  I 
should  think  every  gownsman  was  there.  He  kept  you  in  a 
roar  the  whole  time.  His  lecture  of  Dr.  MacSillergrip  at  the 
Mechanics'  Athenaeum  on  geography,  vulgar  fractions,  and  other 
abstract  sciences,  was  excellent ;  his  definition  of  metaphysics  is 
"  when  one  mon  spaiks  to  anither  what  he  no  understands,  and 
what  the  mon  to  whom  he  spaiks  kens  no  better  than  himself 
that's  metaphysics/'  .  .  .  To-night  is  our  debating  night, 
and  a  beautiful  debate  is  expected  on  the  character  of  Napoleon, 


EARLY  TEARS.  53 

so  I  have  not  time  to  write  much  more.  .  .  .  You  would  be 
amazed  at  the  taste  for  discussion  that  prevails  here.  Last 
Sunday  I  heard  three  separate  debates,  in  which  Paley  and 
Butler  were  brought  forward  at  great  length. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Ais  Father. 

December  11,  1827. 

I  think  I  know  enough  men  by  this  time  to  be  able  to 
select  a  society  in  the  next  term.  Cavendish  *  reads  like  a 
dragon,  and  is  very  good-natured,  but  I  much  doubt  whether 
he  will  be  as  popular  as  his  dancing  Grace.  You  will  laugh 
when  I  tell  you  I  cannot  contain  myself  from  speaking  a  few 
words  for  the  Greeks  this  evening  at  the  Union.  I  want,  too, 
to  try  my  powers.  You  shall  hear  the  result. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Tuesday  (undated}. 

My  father  will  give  you  a  much  better  tale  of  our  College 
festivities  than  I  can  commit  to  writing.  I  think  you  would 
have  been  amused  at  the  scene,  which  you  must  come  and  see 
some  day.  Since  my  last  I  think  I  have  been  at  Mrs.  Freer's 
ball,  where  you  may  suppose  the  struggle  for  partners  was 
very  great,  and  where  Fitzclarence,  the  arbiter  elegantiarum  (I 
think  you  know  the  phrase)  of  Cambridge  and  the  aristocracy, 
carried  all  before  him.  By-the-bye,  my  father  has  consented 
to  my  making  an  attempt  at  wearing  a  hat  by  the  Duke  of 
Rutland's  royal  consent.  ...  I  dined  yesterday  as  a  guest 
at  Jesus.  Such  a  contrast  to  the  noise  and  bustle  of  our  gala 
days  !  What  do  you  think  of  Monck  facing  a  whole  circle  of 
dons  and  refusing  to  obey  them,  because  he  said  they  had  no 
right  to  command  him?  The  scene  in  the  Hall  to-day — the 
music,  the  clapping,  the  whistling,  the  shouting — was  exactly 
like  the  back  gallery  at  Drury  Lane.  .  .  .  My  speech  at  the  Union 
was  nearly  a  failure.  I  was  dreadfully  nervous,  and  not  quite 
well,  and  near  three  hundred  men  present  I  was  applauded 
*  Seventh  Duke  of  Devonshire. 


&4  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGETON. 

and  complimented,  but  it   was  ill  delivered.     Another  attempt 
may  be  more  propitious. 

Before  the  year  closed,  Milnes  obtained  from  Dr. 
Whewell  the  right  to  wear  a  hat,  a  privilege  conferred 
inter  alia  among  those  who  can  show  royal  descent. 
This  he  was  able  to  do  by  tracing  his  mother's  connec- 
tion with  the  family  of  the  Duke  of  Eutland. 

He  was  enthusiastically  loyal  to  his  college,  and 
when  Trinity  produced  the  Senior  Wrangler  of  the 
year  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Perry,  he  wrote  to  his  father 
with  all  the  jubilation  of  one  who  had  achieved  a 
triumph  on  his  own  account. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Ms  Father. 

Jan.  20^,  1828. 

It  savours  of  College  freshness  to  talk  of  the  glories  of  the 
Senate  House,  but  the  scene  on  Saturday  was  to  me  almost 
ecstatic.  The  Duke  of  Sussex  was  enthroned  by  the  Chancellor, 
and  seemed  to  enjoy  the  thing.  Thirlwall,  a  father  of  the 
College,  led  Perry  up  the  long  line  amid  deafening  shouts. 
Though  he  seemed  somewhat  affected,  yet  I  cannot  imagine 
how  he  was  not  overpowered ;  but  I  suppose  the  discipline  of 
mind  required  in  such  a  practice  of  study  was  enough  to  wither 
up  all  the  weakness  of  the  heart  and  keep  down  exuberant  feel- 
ing. The  College  was  never  so  grateful  to  any  man.  If  one  of 
the  seven  Johnian  sages  who  followed  had  been  first,  Trinity 
must  have  hid  her  diminished  head.  In  the  evening  in  the 
combination-room  the  Duke  in  returning  thanks  and  alluding 
to  the  London  University,  which  was  received  with  excellent 
feeling,  and  in  proposing  Perry's  health,  was  very  good.  His 
language  was  peculiarly  well  chosen.  Poor  Monck  has  been 
very  unfortunate  in  his  examination;  he  had  read  much  too 
high.  He  is  a  good  algebraist,  and  they  gave  him  division  sums, 


EARLY    TEARS.  55 

which  he  would  not  deign  to  do ;  so  he  was  lower  than  many 
men  far  his  inferiors.  He  is  now  going  to  read  mathematics 
hard.  I  asked  him  the  reason.  "  We  shall  soon  be  all  thrown 
on  our  own  resources,  and  in  a  revolution  how  can  a  man  be  an 
officer  without  mathematics  ? "  .  .  .  I  got  a  note  from 
De  Vere  this  morning.  He  says  "  our  game  is  up  in  the 
Cabinet,  but  n'importe ;  we  shall  give  them  a  roasting  in  the 
only  House  where  honour,  patriotism,  or  liberality  meets  with 
its  full  meed  of  reward/'  I  fear  this  is  more  Irish  than  true. 
There  are  six  men  plucked.  One  of  them  has  a  living  of  £600 
a  year  waiting  for  him,  which  by  his  not  taking  orders  reverts 
to  the  Bishop.  Whewell  says  nothing  can  be  more  marked 
than  the  distinctive  merits  of  the  men.  Perry  is  almost  sure 
of  the  Smith's  prize. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

I  have  received  your  kind  letter  and  money,  for  which  I  give 
you  all  my  thanks.  I  believe  I  have  been  extravagant,  but  I 
hope  it  is  past.  I  see  the  part  I  have  to  play,  and  it  shall  be 
done.  However  inclined  I  may  have  been  at  any  time  to 
indolence  and  luxury,  I  have  never  entertained  a  thought  of 
ever  living  in  apathetic  independence  of  my  own  exertions,  as 
most  of  my  associates  fancy  themselves  entitled  from  circum- 
stances of  fortune  to  do.  Might  I  not  then  make  a  double  use 
of  my  time  here  by  keeping  terms  at  some  Inn  of!  Court  in 
town,  and  thus,  at  any  rate,  give  a  semblance  of  intention  to 
commence  a  professional  career  ? 

There  were  special  reasons  for  the  tone  thus  taken  by 
Milnes  with  regard  to  his  future  and  the  desirableness 
of  his  adopting  some  professional  career.  This  was  the 
period  at  which  the  family  embarrassments,  of  which  brief 
mention  was  made  in  the  previous  chapter,  had  culminated, 
and  it  had  become  necessary  that  Mr.  Pemherton  Milnes 
should  partially  close  his  establishments  in  this  country, 


56  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

and,  together  with  his  family,  take  up  his  residence 
abroad.  In  the  month  of  May  he  and  his  wife  and 
daughter  accordingly  left  England  and  went  to  Boulogne, 
where  they  took  a  house  in  the  Eue  St.  Martin,  in  which 
they  resided  for  about  a  year.  The  circumstances  in 
which  he  was  thus  placed  naturally  made  Mr.  Milnes 
more  anxious  than  he  otherwise  might  have  been  that 
his  son  should  neglect  no  opportunity  of  steadily 
pursuing  his  studies  at  Cambridge. 

Writing  in  reference  to  a  disappointment  as  to 
his  place  in  an  examination,  Milnes  says  to  his 
father  : — 

You  seem  to  speak  of  the  disappointment  as  if  it  did  not 
affect  me  as  deeply  as  yourself.  All  that  can  be  done  I  promise 
you  shall  be  done ;  but  this  brings  me  to  another  part  of  your 
letter.  I  see  you  think  the  tenor  of  my  last  letter  to  my  mother 
too  gay,  too  flippant;  but  really,  if  I  am  to  write  anything  but 
a  dull  record  of  my  studies,  I  must  make  the  most  of  every 
little  thing  that  breaks  upon  the  monotony  of  this  place.  In 
the  amusements  I  frankly  write  of,  and  which  you  consider  such 
a  prostitution  of  time,  is  there  one  inconsistent  with  ten  hours  a 
day  reading  ?  They  all  embraced  but  the  hours  of  ten  till  twelve; 
they  never  made  me  miss  lectures,  nor  in  any  way  interfered 
with  the  following  day.  I  have  never  been  out  to  dinner,  and  I 
have  never  been  on  horseback;  I  have  not  walked  out  half  a 
dozen  times.  With  so  little  active  dissipation,  I  must  indeed  be 
a  desperate  lounger  if  I  have  been  very  idle. 

During  the  long  vacation  Milnes  joined  his  family 
at  Boulogne,  and  spent  a  pleasant  time  with  them  there. 
Returning  to  Cambridge  at  Michaelmas,  he  found  many 
new  students  had  arrived,  with  some  of  whom  he  was 
destined  to  form  lasting  friendships. 


EARLY    YEARS.  57 

We  have  a  grand  flush  of  noblemen  (he  writes  to  his  mother, 
Oct.  2  7th),  Lord  Kerry,*  who  has  been  privately  educated,  and  who 
promises  much,  and  some  others.  At  St.  John's  they  have  a  son  of 
Lord  Heytesbury.  Among  us  there  is  Sutton,  the  Speaker's  son, 
very  gentlemanly,  and  Hallam,  the  son  of  the  historian.  ...  I 
find  I  can  carry  the  Presidency  of  the  Union  easily,  but  as  my 
rival  is  a  third-year  man  I  have  given  it  up.  Do  let  me  hear 
very  often  how  you  are.  It  is  really  very  hard  that  Boulogne 
should  have  so  bad  a  name,  I  dare  hardly  mention  it.  Harvey 
gave  me  such  a  Bristol  look  when  I  said  where  I  had  been.  I 
am  afraid  my  mathematics  will  go  on  slowly  this  term,  and  I 
begin  to  be  nervous  about  the  Union.  We  are  to  discuss  the 
character  of  Voltaire  and  the  question  of  Primogeniture,  both 
pretty  good  subjects. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Sister. 

Nov.  29^,  1828. 

My  studies  may  be  discerned  by  the  books  at  present  on  my 
table — Wordsworth's  poems,  a  book  on  anatomy,  resting  on  a 
skull  (I  am  attending  the  lectures  on  that  subject,  and  a  man 
comes  down  from  town  to  be  cut  up  next  week),  Aristotle, 
Hallam's  Constitutional  History,  Bolingbroke,  and  Cousin's 
Philosophy.  Tell  papa  Kerry  says  I  am  the  most  Parliamentary 
speaker  in  the  Union.  We  had  a  delightful  debate  on  the 
Catholic  Association  at  the  Sunday-school,  when  Hallam  made 
a  capital  speech.  We  have  Rousseau  next  Sunday. 

It  was  very  soon  after  the  date  of  this  letter  that 
Arthur  Hallam,  writing  to  his  school  friend,  Mr. 
Gladstone  (February  29th,  1829),  after  referring  to 
another  old  Etonian,  Mr.  James  Milnes  Gaskell,  also 
a  friend  of  his  own  and  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  added,  "  His 
cousin  Milnes  is  one  of  our  aristocracy  of  intellect  here. 

*  Elder  brother  of  the  fourth  Marquis  of  Lansdowne.   He  died  early. 


58  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

.  .  A  kind-hearted  fellow,  as  well  as  a  very  clever  one, 
but  vain  and  paradoxical,  and  altogether  as  unlike 
Gaskell  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive."  In  another 
letter  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  Arthur  Hallam  observes  that 
the  principal  orators  at  the  Union  were  Sunderland, 
Milnes,  Kemble,  and  Trench,  and  he  speaks  of  Milnes 
as  a  clever  and  agreeable  fellow,  with  some  power  of 
speaking  in  him  if  he  cultivated  it  well. 

In  a  letter  written  in  November,  1828,  Mr.  Milnes 
Gaskell  says : — 

I  have  received  two  letters  from  Mr.  Hallam,  both  very 
interesting  and  affectionate.  In  the  first  he  sends  me  word 
that  atheistic  ultra-utilitarians  sway  the  Union.  He  describes 
Milnes  as  possessing  great  and  varied  talents,  and  gives  me  his 
concluding  sentence  in  the  debate  at  the  Union  on  the  character 
of  Voltaire,  which  was  applauded  to  the  skies,  and  is  certainly 
good  : — "  During  the  stormy  period  of  the  French  Revolution, 
and  during  the  greater  peril  of  the  Empire  under  Napoleon,  a 
lamp  was  kept  perpetually  burning  on  the  tomb  of  Voltaire. 
France  is  greater  now  than  she  was  then ;  France  is  wiser  now 
than  she  was  then ;  France  is  better  now  than  she  was  then ; 
but  that  lamp  does  not  burn  upon  the  tomb  of  Voltaire." 

His  young  friends  at  Cambridge  saw  only  the  gay 
exterior  of  their  brilliant  companion,  whose  manner 
charmed  all,  but,  as  the  following  letter  shows,  the 
smiling  face  at  this  time  concealed  a  heart  that  was 
anything  but  gay. 

M.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

December  %th,  1828. 

I  was  rather  surprised,  though,  I  can  assure  you,  not  at  all 
sorry,  at  the  way  you  have  destined  me  to  spend  my  vacation,  as 


EARLY    TEARS.  59 

Mary  Ann  told  me  you  had  determined  I  should  go  to  Yorkshire 
this  Christmas.  If  I  had,  I  should  have  managed,  if  possible, 
to  spend  a  day  or  two  at  poor  Fryston.  I  seem  now  only  to 
begin  to  feel  the  blight  that  has  fallen  on  the  hopes  of  my 
childhood;  it  is  an  undefined  regret,  a  sense  of  having  lost  a 
place  in  society — and  to  hear  you  call  yourself  exiled,  exiled 
without  almost  a  name,  without  a  good  cause,  without  even  the 
miserable  consciousness  that  you  have  enjoyed  what  you  have 
lost,  and  are  paying  present  pain  for  past  pleasure,  makes  me 
very  wretched.  When  I  examine  it,  I  half  find  it  a  selfish  and 
grovelling  feeling,  but  it  comes  upon  me  when  alone,  and  more 
still  when  I  look  round  on  those  who  have  brighter  courses 
before  them.  ...  As  to  the  Union,  we  will  talk  it  over 
under  the  sober  influence  of  your  thirteen-penny  claret;  but 
we  expect  a  grand  display  to-morrow,  as  a  tribe  of  the  wise  and 
good  have  come  down  from  London  to  speak  (the  subject  is  the 
Irish  Union).  They  all  breakfasted  with  me  yesterday,  except 
Praed,  who  comes  up  to-day.  ...  I  have  a  very  deep 
respect  for  Hallam.  Thirlwall  is  actually  captivated  with  him. 
He  really  seems  to  know  everything,  from  metaphysics  to 
cookery.  I  dine  with  him,  Thirlwall,  and  Hare  (think  what  a 
parti  carre  we  shall  be!)  on  Wednesday.  We  are  to  have  no 
commemoration  at  all  ever  again,  no  public  spectacles,  and  all 
because  men  will  applaud  their  friends.  How  absurd  ! 
Clubs  are  all  the  rage  here,  and  all  my  friends  look  like  livery 
servants  in  their  different  costumes.  A  Brunswick  one,  with 
Norreys  and  Wellesley  at  the  head,  is  the  most  prominent. 
Tell  my  mother  to  keep  herself  quiet  for  me,  as  I  am  coming  to 
see  her,  not  anyone  else,  and  to  waltz  only  with  Harriette.  .  .  . 
I  have  taken  the  most  vivid  hatred  against  Boulogne ;  I  think, 
however,  I  shall  come  to  you  in  about  a  fortnight.  W^hewell 
was  going  to  take  me  to  the  Observatory  to-night  to  see  the 
comet,  but  it  is  a  regular  Cambridge  day. 

Among  the  friendships  Milnes  had  already  formed, 
was  one  with  John  Sterling,  with  whom  their  common 


60  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

literary  tastes  formed  a  -strong  bond  of  union.  Having 
spent  Christmas  at  Boulogne,  Milnes  passed  a  few  days 
in  town  before  returning  to  Cambridge,  from  which 
place  he  writes  to  his  mother,  February  2nd,  1829  : — 

I  dined  at  Sterling's  on  Sunday — quite  a  Cambridge  dinner. 
My  friend  has  a  brother,  a  great  friend  of  Carleton's  in  the 
Twenty-fourth.  Kemble  and  all  the  Athenaum  men  were  there. 
The  former  has  been  very  ill-treated  here,  nobody  knows  why, 
except  that  in  his  examination  he  called  Paley  a  "  miserable 
sophist,"  and  talked  of  Locke's  "  loathsome  infidelity,"  which 
pleased  one  very  much,  but  made  the  examiners  very  angry. 
Some  proposed  to  pluck  him,  but  one  said,  "  We  will  not  make 
him  a  martyr." 

Intermingled  with  questions  as  to  his  studies,  his 
health,  his  personal  habits,  and  his  expenses,  such  as 
most  fathers  address  to  their  sons,  there  were  to  be 
found  in  the  letters  which  Milnes  received  from  his 
father  all  through  his  college  career,  shrewd  and  even 
brilliant  criticisms  upon  the  state  of  public  affairs,  to 
which  the  young  man  was  expected  to  respond.  It  was 
in  response  to  one  of  these  letters,  often  intended  as  a 
direct  challenge  to  the  son,  that  he  wrote  as  follows  : — 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

February,  1829. 

I  think  you  are  too  hard  on  Peel ;  he  declares  (and  are  we  not 
to  believe  him?)  that  the  honest  Government  of  Lord  Anglesea 
displayed  to  him  a  series  of  facts  regarding  Ireland,  which  he 
had  before  heard  indeed,  but  had  little  credited,  as  the  arguments 
of  a  side  and  plea  of  a  party.  Now  they  are  brought  before  him 
on  clear,  indisputable  authority,  and  he  suffers  himself  to  be  con- 
vinced. Now,  Mr.  Peel,  who,  in  his  miserable  lack  of  genius, 
has  enough  of  sound  sense,  must  have  perceived  that  by  remain- 


EARLY   YEARS.  61 

ing  in  place  he  vacated  that  stronghold  in  which  he  had  rested 
invincible  so  long — his  ostentatious  honesty,  his  integrity  of 
principle.  Now,  is  it  probable  he  would  have  thrust  himself 
forward  with  the  poor  covering  of  his  own  ability  into  the 
pelting  storm  of  infuriated  popular  feeling,  unless  he  had 
believed  himself  able  not  only  to  justify  himself  to  his  own 
heart,  but  to  come  forth  with  good  report  again  before  men  ?  .  .  . 
We  had  a  capital  debate  last  night  at  the  Union  on  the  subject : 
"  Will  Mr.  Coleridge's  poem  of  the  Ancient  Mariner,  or  Mr. 
Martin's  Acts,  be  most  effectual  in  preventing  cruelty  to 
animals  ?  "  It  was  opened  with  some  very  deep  poetical  criticism 
by  a  friend  of  Coleridge's;  then  the  great  unpoetical  King's 
man  tried  to  turn  the  poem  into  ridicule,  and  I  answered  him. 
Sunderland  followed  me  in  a  most  absurd  strain  of  hyperbolical 
Radicalism,  ending,  "To  give  the  people  an  opportunity  for 
developing  their  poetic  sympathies,  we  must  give  them  a  liberal 
education  ;  to  give  them  this,  we  must  overthrow  an  aristocratical 
Government."  Then  Mr.  Symons — "  he  knew  Mr.  Martin  very 
well;  he  would  not  compare  all  his  senatorial  abilities  with  the 
sole  production  before  them ;  he  knew  Mr.  Martin  was  actuated 
by  the  best  of  motives,  Mr.  Martin  would  be  much  hurt  by  the 
aspersions  cast  upon  him  in  that  Society,"  &c.  &c.  Much 
better,  however,  than  I  ever  heard  him  before.  Then  a  clever 
Utilitarian  speech,  and  lastly  a  most  eloquent  commentary  upon 
the  poem  itself,  from  a  very  superior  man,  which  so  won  on  the 
hearts  of  the  House,  that  when  he  read  the  last  verses  the  cheer- 
ing was  tremendous.  Coleridge,  however,  would  not  have 
carried  it,  had  it  not  been  for  the  Brunswickers,  who  arrived  in 
full  orange  badges  to  vote  against  Martin.  I  am  getting  on 
very  slowly,  but  tolerably  steadily,  in  Mathematics,  but,  alas! 
cannot  exclaim  with  one  of  the  poets  of  the  Elizabethan  age, 
"  Sweet  analytic,  thou  hast  ravished  me."  I  have  had  two  or 
three  short  reviews  and  bits  of  poetry  in  the  Atheneeum,  but  no- 
thing worth  sending  you.  Whewell  is  going  to  give  lectures  on 
Political  Economy  at  the  Philosophical  Society,  and  to  reduce 
the  whole  theory  of  rent  to  algebraical  formulae.  I  have  a  Latin 


62  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

declamation  in  about  a  fortnight.  Hare  is  very  much  amused  at 
the  topic  I  have  chosen — the  truth  of  the  essential  dualism  of 
Herodotus.  As  this  subject  penetrates  to  the  very  foundation  of 
Coleridge's  philosophy,  it  will  give  me  some  hard  fagging. 
Hallatn  and  Fitzroy  are  the  men  whom  I  see  most  of.  The 
former  is  the  only  man  here  of  my  own  standing  before  whom 
I  bow  in  conscious  inferiority  in  everything.  ...  I  am  going 
to  give  a  small  dinner  next  week  to  Cavendish,  Wellesley, 
Wentworth,  and  some  two  others.  I  don't  think  people  are  par- 
ticularly gay  this  term,  though  there  was  a  grand  migration  to 
Hendon  on  Monday  night,  and  I  take  some  credit  to  myself  for 
having  resisted  the  contamination,  as  I  had  a  fancy  dress  all 
ready.  I  have  finished  "  Timbuctoo."  It  is  liked  by  the  Popeians 
and  Darwinians,  as  well  as  my  own  sect,  which  is  a  good  sign. 
I  shall  let  Thirlwall  correct  ad  libitum. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

February  26^,  1829. 

Hallam  opened  at  the  Union  in  a  maiden  speech  against  the 
decapitation  of  Charles  last  night,  but  he  did  not  succeed  very 
well.  I  opposed  him  at  some  length,  but  am  afraid  I  was  too 
flashy.  Indeed,  I  find  it  hard  to  trace  the  line  between  passion 
and  rant.  I  took  the  question  on  simple  constitutional  prin- 
ciples. I  open  next  Sunday  at  our  society  on  Mr.  Peel's 
conduct.  G.  Wellesley  is  going  to  defend  him.  By-the-bye, 
how  superbly  has  Cavendish  done  in  the  Tripos !  Wellesley, 
with  all  his  talents,  has  too  much  Etonian  frivolity  about  him 
ever  to  do  well  as  a  scholar.  Everybody  is  pleased  that 
Wordsworth  has  got  the  scholarship.  Lushington,  I  believe, 
was  next  htm.  The  London  Union  does  not  seem  half  so  good 
as  ours.  Sterling  spoke  splendidly,  and  Mill  made  an  essay  on 
Wordsworth's  poetry  for  two  and  three-quarter  hours,  which 
delighted  me,  but  all  the  rest  was  meagre  in  the  extreme. 

.  "  Timbuctoo  "  was  the  subject  of  the  prize  poem  for 
the  year,  and,  as   a  previous  letter  has  shown,  Milnes 


EARLY    YEARS.  63 

duly  took  part  in  the  competition.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  he  did  not  achieve  the  success  he 
coveted.  The  prize-winner  was  a  young  man  then 
unknown  to  fame,  who  had  recently  become  an  under- 
graduate at  Trinity  College,  and  between  whom  and 
Milnes  a  lifelong  friendship  had  already  sprung  up ; 
who  was  destined  to  gain  for  himself,  within  a  few 
years  of  the  beginning  of  his  University  life,  a  place 
among  the  greatest  of  English  poets. 

Lord  Tennyson  preserved  his  feeling  of  affectionate 
regard  for  Milnes  throughout  the  life  of  the  latter.  He 
has  told  me  how  their  friendship  began.  It  was  on  the 
day  on  which  the  poet  entered  Trinity  College  as  an 
undergraduate.  He  saw  a  young  man  whose  face 
struck  him  so  much,  that  he  said  to  himself,  "  That  is 
a  man  I  should  like  to  know ;  he  looks  the  best-tempered 
fellow  I  ever  saw."  It  was  Milnes.  They  spoke  to 
each  other,  and  from  that  time  forward  they  were  friends. 
"  He  always  put  you  in  a  good  humour,"  were  the 
words  Lord  Tennyson  used  to  the  present  writer  when 
recalling  his  intercourse  with  Milnes  ;  and  as  the  phrase 
supplies  one  of  those  happy  touches  so  invaluable  to 
the  biographer,  I  venture  to  reproduce  it  here.  Kind- 
ness of  heart,  and  good  temper — a  good  temper  which 
was,  I  admit,  liable  to  be  disturbed  by  little  gusts  of 
irascibility  such  as  are  common  to  sensitive  and  highly 
strung  natures — formed  the  passport  which  brought 
Milnes  into  social  favour  everywhere. 

Not  to  succeed  in  a  competition  for  poetry  in  which 
Alfred  Tennyson  was  one  of  tlie  competitors,  could 


64  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

hardly  have  been  regarded,  even  by  a  man  far  more 
sensitive  than  Milnes,  as  a  serious  blow.  His  career  at 
Trinity  had,  however,  other  vicissitudes,  some  of  which 
mortified  him  greatly. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Friday  Evening,  June  5th. 

Thank  heaven  the  examination  is  over,  and  the  result,  is  just 
what  I  expected,  though  from  causes  I  hardly  anticipated.  I 
had  been  reading  very  hard  before  it,  but  found  when  I  got  a 
paper  before  me,  that  I  could  indeed  write  down  what  I  had  got 
b}T  heart ;  but  as  for  thinking,  and  deducing,  and  collecting  my 
scattered  knowledge,  it  was  perfectly  useless.  I  was  so  nervous 
and  agitated,  that  it  was  a  great  exertion  even  to  write  down 
anything  memoriter  accurately,  and  as  it  happened,  hardly 
anything  that  I  could  do  so  was  set.  It  was  much  the  same 
on  the  second  day,  but  I  still  hoped  I  should  do  tolerably  in 
my  differential,  and  I  sat  up  nearly  all  the  preceding  night 
getting  it  up.  It  came  on  in  the  afternoon,  when,  what  with 
fatigue  (I  had  written  for  four  hours  incessantly  in  the  morning) 
and  the  heat  of  the  hall,  I  soon  became  excessively  faint  and 
giddy,  and  could  hardly  see  before  me.  My  agitation  increased 
every  moment,  and  I  went  out  for  some  minutes,  hoping  to 
collect  myself.  When  I  returned  it  was  all  in  vain,  and  when, 
after  trying  some  very  simple  things,  I  found  even  my  memory 
quite  gone,  I  lost  all  self-possession,  and  rushed  out  of  the  hall 
in  a  most  miserable  state,  and  cried  myself  to  sleep  on  my  sofa. 
I  don't  know  I  had  ever  hoped  for  a  first-class,  but  I  feel  so 
mortified  at  thus  having  lost  it  irrevocably,  that  it  was  quite  a 
shock  to  me.  The  next  morning  I  had  such  a  dreadful  headache 
that  I  did  not  go  in  at  all,  as  I  was  sure  I  could  have  done  next 
to  nothing,  and  people  would  not  have  believed  me  so  unwell  as 
I  was.  I  was,  however,  much  better  in  the  afternoon,  and  now 
hope  with  a  few  days'  rest  to  get  quite  strong  again.  I  am, 
however,  convinced  of  one  fact,  that  for  purposes  of  examination 


EARLY    TEARS.  66 

my  studying  mathematics  is  totally  useless.  I  am  sure  I  have 
given  them  a  fair  chance,  and  the  only  thing  I  regret  is  that 
they  have  cost  you  so  much.  I  have  not,  indeed,  devoted  my 
whole  time  to  them,  but  I  have  read  them  harder  than  I  ever 
did  anything  in  my  life ;  perhaps  the  time  I  have  spent  on  them 
has  not  been  actually  thrown  away,  as  it  has  been  a  mental 
employment,  and  certainly  I  have  not  the  same  repugnance  to 
them  I  once  had.  As  for  my  classics,  there  has  been  a  great 
deal  both  of  composition  and  cram.  Out  of  these  I  have  done 
as  well  as  I  expected.  I  have  not  the  least  anxiety  now  about 
what  class  I  am  in,  as  I  have  no  bets  this  year,  and  nobody 
expects  me  to  be  high. 

As  it  happened,  the  profound  dejection  displayed  in 
this  letter  was  uncalled  for.  When  the  result  of  the 
examination  became  known,  he  found  that  he  had  done 
very  much  better  than  he  had  supposed,  and  received  the 
somewhat  mortifying  assurance  from  his  tutors  that  if 
he  had  remained  to  the  end,  he  would  undoubtedly  have 
secured  a  very  high  place  in  the  list. 

Once  more  he  arranged  to  join  his  family  at  Boulogne 
during  the  summer,  and  proposed  to  take  with  him  one 
of  his  Cambridge  friends.  Hallam  could  not  go,  but 
Tennyson — Charles  Tennyson,  brother  of  Alfred — was 
willing  to  do  so.  Before  he  left  Cambridge,  however, 
Milnes  had  an  adventure  of  a  kind  which  he  dearly 
loved,  and  which  procured  for  him  at  the  time  a  little 
notoriety.  This  was  an  ascent  in  a  balloon  with  Mr. 
Green,  the  well-known  aeronaut.  Another  undergrad- 
uate, Mr.  George  Wyndham  Scott,  afterwards  Eector  of 
Kentisbere,  in  Devonshire,  joined  him  in  the  adventur- 
ous flight,  and,  curiously  enough,  the  two  young  men, 


66  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

who  met  for  the  first  time  in  the  balloon,  never 
met  again.  "  Ascendat  Mr.  Milnes,  May  19,  1829, 
W.  Whewell,"  is  the  exact  form  in  which  Milnes  ob- 
tained leave  to  make  this  novel  flight  from  his  University. 
"  Precisely  at  half-past  six  o'clock,"  says  the  local 
newspaper,  chronicling  this  ascent,  "the  preliminary 
arrangements  having  been  completed,  the  intrepid  aero- 
naut entered  the  car,  followed  by  his  spirited  companions, 
each  of  whom  sat  at  one  end,  Mr.  Green  standing  in  the 
centre.  At  a  given  signal  the  cords  were  loosened,  and 
the  machine  rose  in  a  most  majestic  manner,  amidst  the 
shouts  of  the  assembled  multitude."  One  can  well 
imagine  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  undergraduates 
beheld  the  flight  of  two  of  their  brethren  heavenwards. 
Hardly  had  the  ascent  commenced,  than  Milnes  produced 
a  pencil,  and  began  the  following  note  to  his  friend 
Arthur  Hallam : — 

R.  M.  M.  to  A.  H.  Hallam. 

DEAR  HALLAM, — Your  friend  in  the  skies  speeds  this  note  to  you 
at  an  elevation  of  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  base  earth,  where 
you  are  grovelling.  Oh,  if  the  spirit  of  Adonais  would  sail  with  me 
in  my  little  boat,  my  very  crescent  moon  !  The  sun  has  given  me  a 
little  headache,  but  a  light  breeze  comes  playing  along.  Now 
we  cross  St.  Neofs.  The  whole  country  looks  a  beautiful 
model;  the  wind  near  the  earth  is  tremendously  high,  and  the 
descent  will  be  rather  dangerous.  We  have  ascended  2,000  feet 
since  I  began  this,  but  no  motion  is  perceptible  ;  now  the  shout 
rises  from  the  earth,  in  a  sort  of  distant  wail.  The  sun  is  painting 
the  clouds.  In  a  little  basket 

The  remainder  of  this  effusion  is  illegible,  but  a  note, 
in  the  handwriting  of  its  author,  attached  to  it  is  as 
follows : — 


EARLY    YEARS.  67 

I  wrote  the  above  note  to  my  friend  Arthur  Hallam,  on  the 
occasion  of  my  ascent  with  Mr.  Green,  from  Cambridge,  in  1829. 
We  descended  in  Lord  Northampton's  Park,  at  Castle  Ashby,  in 
Northamptonshire.  I  intended  to  wrap  up  the  note  with  some 
solid  substance,  to  let  it  fall  as  we  passed  over  some  town,  and 
to  beg  whoever  found  it  to  put  it  in  the  post.  I  forget  what 
circumstance  prevented  me  from  finishing  it. 

He  must  have  written  a  second  and  fuller  account  of 
his  aerial  voyage,  which  extended  over  a  distance  of  forty 
miles,  to  Arthur  Hallam,  as  the  following  letter  shows  : — 

A.  H.  Hallam  to  R.  M.  M. 

67,  Wimpole  Street,  Thursday. 

Brava !  Bravissima  !  If  I  were  dying  I  could  not  refrain  from 
taking  my  pen  in  hand  to  congratulate  the  prince  of  all  aeronauts. 
You  are  not  yet  Gazetted,  so  your  letter  was  the  first  notice  I 
received  of  your  adventure.  To  say  the  truth,  I  by  no  means 
expected  such  a  notice,  for  I  had  been  sceptical  all  along  as  to 
your  possessing  physical  courage  enough  to  venture.  Hence- 
forward I  shall  look  on  you  with  much  increased  reverence.  A 
power  has  gone  forth  from  you,  and  woe  to  any  idolater  of 
negations  who,  denying  its  influence,  should  look  on  "  him  as 
flies"  with  the  same  coolness  as  he  had  before  on  "him  as 
speaks."  Your  account  is  admirable,  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  surely 
you  could  fill  another  sheet  with  pneumatologica.  Talk  of 
chapels  like  ivory  boxes,  trees  like  bits  of  stick,  why,  a  Lockian 
could  have  said  as  much  !  For  the  honour  of  transcendentalism 
and  Shelleyism  give  me  something  more  refined.  By  all  means 
come  and  see  me  in  London.  You  will  have  heard  from 
Tennyson  that  I  am  kept  within  gates  here.  I  am  better  to-day 
than  I  have  been  for  the  last  week,  but  you  will  pardon  me, 
I  hope,  for  not  exerting  my  eyes  more  at  present.  Pray  write 
often  to  me  in  the  course  of  the  next  dreary  five  months,  and 
believe  me, 

Yours  reverentially  and  lovingly, 

A.  H.  HALLAM. 


68  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

As  I  have  given  Hallam's  expression  of  doubt  as  to 
the  physical  courage  of  his  friend,  it  is  only  fair  to 
state,  on  the  authority  of  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  that 
Mr.  Green  bore  testimony  to  the  perfect  self-possession 
shown  throughout  the  whole  trip  by  his  two  com- 
panions. At  this  point,  too,  I  may  observe  that  Hallam, 
for  whom  Milnes  entertained  so  strong  a  regard  and 
respect,  was,  according  to  their  contemporaries  at  Cam- 
bridge, "at  one  time  very  unjust"  towards  the  latter. 
No  memory,  however,  of  such  passing  injustice  lingered 
for  a  moment  in  the  breast  of  Milnes,  who  never  ceased 
to  love  and  revere  the  memory  of  the  young  friend 
whose  brilliant  career  was  so  early  cut  short  by  the 
"  blind  Fury  with  the  abhorred  shears." 

His  plans  for  joining  his  family  with  one  of  the 
Tennysons  at  Boulogne  were  frustrated  by  the  depar- 
ture of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milnes  with  their  daughter 
from  that  town  for  Italy.  Their  son  joined  them 
en  route  at  Paris,  where  he  was  introduced  to  General 
Lafayette,  Baron  Cuvier,  and  other  noted  people,  and 
accompanied  them  to  Switzerland,  where  he  made  a  tour 
on  his  own  account,  and  enjoyed  for  the  first  time  the 
delight  of  sojourning  amid  the  majestic  beauties  of  the 
Alps.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milnes  in  the  meantime  had  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Milan,  where  they  were  to  reside 
for  several  years.  We  shall  have  many  glimpses 
in  Eichard  Milnes's  letters  of  life  in  Northern 
Italy  in  those  days  when  Austrian  rule  was  supreme 
throughout  Lombardy  and  Venetia.  The  story  told  by 
Mrs.  Milnes  in  her  journal  proves  that  the  English 


EARLY    YEARS.  69 

family  was  very  soon  made  at  home  in  the  society  of 
Milan,  such  as  it  was.  Even  the  great  gulf  which 
divided  the  Governed  from  the  Governors  did  not  seem 
to  affect  them,  and  they  were  equally  welcome  in  the 
salons  of  the  Italians  and  the  palace  of  the  Austrian 
Viceroy.  It  was  a  pleasant  and  by  no  means  unprofit- 
able life  which  the  exiles  led.  Mr.  Milnes,  indeed,  pre- 
served his  critical  attitude  of  mind,  even  under  the 
seductive  skies  of  Italy ;  and  whilst  he  was  by  no  means 
blind  to  the  hardships  and  the  injustices  attached  to 
Austrian  rule,  he  was  equally  ready  to  point  out  to  his 
son  the  defects  of  the  Italian  character,  and  the  extent 
to  which  long  years  of  bondage  had  enfeebled  their 
powers  of  self-government.  Mrs.  Milnes,  with  her  great 
love  of  music  and  her  uncommon  powers  as  an  executant, 
thoroughly  enjoyed  the  society  of  the  many  artists  of 
distinction,  both  amateur  and  professional,  who  were  at 
that  time  to  be  found  in  Milan ;  whilst  her  daughter 
steadily  pursued  her  education  under  the  best  masters 
the  city  could  afford.  Eichard  Milnes  was  only  able 
to  be  with  his  family  at  intervals,  the  claims  of  Uni- 
versity life  in  England  being  paramount;  but  from 
the  first  he  seems  to  have  formed  a  warm  attachment, 
not  only  for  Italian  life,  but  for  the  Italian  character. 
His  sympathetic  temperament  quickly  enabled  him  to 
enter  into  the  feelings  of  those  around  him,  and  the 
development  of  that  cosmopolitanism  of  mind  and  tem- 
perament, which  to  the  last  was  so  striking  a  feature  in 
his  character,  made  rapid  advances  during  these  years 
of  his  early  sojourn  in  Italy.  Side  by  side  with  his 


70  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOVGHTON. 

Cambridge  friendships  now  grew  up  a  whole  series  of 
friendships,  not  less  sincere  than  warm,  with  many 
Italians  of  distinction,  as  well  as  with  not  a  few 
English  residents.  The  fruits  of  these  friendships  are 
to  be  found  in  profusion  in  Milnes's  subsequent  corre- 
spondence, as  well  as  in  many  of  his  poems  and  prose 
writings.  At  the  close  of  the  long  vacation  he  returned 
to  England. 

In  a  letter  to  his  father  from  Paris  he  says : — 

I  had  a  delightful  two  hours'  conversation  with  Cousin  this 
morning,  mostly  on  politics.  One  of  his  remarks  was,  "  What 
is  it  makes  Lafayette  a  mere  idol  of  the  public,  and  B.  Con- 
stant a  phraseur,  and  Wellington  and  Peel  mere  engines  of 
State  ?  They  are  not  metaphysicians.  For  a  man  to  be  now 
a  statesman  he  must  first  be  a  philosopher."  He  embraced  me 
most  affectionately. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Cambridge,  Oct.  22nd,  1829. 

My  books  are  all  on  my  shelves,  Hallam  in  my  great-chair,  your 
list  of  books  on  my  table ;  so  I  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  write 
to  you,  and  sit  down  to  read.  This  place,  with  its  usual  accom- 
paniments, seems — perhaps  from  contrast — to  be  all  that  dulness 
can  make  it.  The  very  air  is  insipid,  and  unmeaning  words  and 
more  unmeaning  faces  throng  on  every  side ;  and  I  mean  to  be 
enormously  eclectic,  not  living,  as  Lady  Morgan  says,  with  a 
fifth  part  of  the  world,  but  an  infinitely  smaller  fraction.  Hare 
has  not  yet  arrived.  Thirlwall  I  have  had  an  hour  with.  He  says 
that  there  is  no  connection  between  political  and  literary  para- 
. lysis,  and  that  there  is  no  reason  of  this  kind  that  the  Milanese 
should  not  be  a  most  intellectual  people.  Whewell  looks  quite 
a  gentleman,  raves  about  Lalande,  and  has  been  taking  an 
architectural  tour  in  Germany.  We  have  no  novelties  of  any 
reputed  calibre — a  Cavendish,  an  Arundel,  a  Sir  Somebody 


EARLY    YEARS.  71 

Preston,  Lord  Duncan,  a  Lord  St.  John,  and  Lord  Sandwich. 
Do  you  know  anything  about  any  of  them?  This  is  all  my 
Walpoliana.  Now  for  your  letter.  The  essay  was  deposited  in 
full  time  at  the  Master's  Lodge.  I  did  not  make  the  corrections 
you  wished,  as  the  latter  part  of  them  quite  perverted  my 
meaning,  and  the  others  were  not  worth  taking  to  Jones. 
You  must  be  quite  insane  to  talk  of  my  writing  on  the  finances 
of  England  in  my  melancholy  state  of  ignorance.  No,  no — stop 
till  I  have  read  something  on  the  subject,  then  I  will  write  to 
you  as  much  as  you  please.  I  will  tell  you  now  what  I  mean  to 
do  for  the  month — Political  Economy,  Italian,  German,  speaking, 
and  a  little  Metaphysics,  lectures  on  Geology,  which  cost  nothing, 
and  the  College  of  Astronomy  on  Newton.  As  for  my  other 
plans,  I  can  only  say  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  all  this 
Cambridge  talking  will  be  rather  injurious  than  otherwise,  if  it 
is  not  skilfully  and  laboriously  adapted  to  the  House.  I  do  not 
quarrel  with  the  stone,  but  it  must  be  strangely  shaped  for  so 
strange  an  architecture.  I  told  you  I  met  Wellesley  in  town; 
we  had  a  long  talk  about  the  Union.  One  of  his  remarks  was  : 
fl  The  very  fluency  which  it  gives  you  is  itself  injurious  in  the 
House.  They  are  so  conceited  with  their  own  importance  that 
they  are  pleased  with  the  confusion  and  hesitation  of  a  tyro,  and 
are  ready  enough  to  give  him  credit  for  intellectual  superiority. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  he  does  not  in  the  least  seem  to  quail  before 
them,  however  apparently  humble  he  may  be,  they  imagine  it 
only  a  disguise,  and  set  upon  him  with  a  merciless  hostility."  Is 
there  not  some  truth  in  this  ?  I  am  convinced  that  if  I  cannot 
come  soon  into  Parliament,  attendance  on  the  House,  however 
disgusting,  is  a  most  indispensable  tedium.  As  for  Germany,  a 
few  months  with  such  men  as  Niebuhr,  who  you  must  know  has 
held  high  diplomatic  situations,  and  Schlegel — you  remember  his 
"  Dramatic  Literature  " — must  be  of  deep  mental  advantage. 
Lady  Morgan  says  they  who  would  legislate  for  the  world  must  live 
in  the  world,  and  the  best  intentions,  aided  by  the  best  talents, 
will  be  found  inadequate  to  serve  the  great  cause  of  humanity  if 
its  schemes,  though  perfect  in  the  abstract,  are  inapplicable  to  the 


72  TEE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

actual  state  of  society.  This  is  true  enough,  but  it  is  surely  the 
part  of  a  wise  man  to  have  a  canon  to  which  he  can  adapt  these 
fugitive  circumstances,  and  not,  making  these  very  circum- 
stances his  rule,  adapt  his  principles  to  them.  I  did  not  see 
Sterling  in  town  to  ask  him  about  the  Courts  of  Law,  but  shall 
write  to  him.  Kemble  is  at  College,  reading  metaphysics ; 
Tennyson's  poem  has  made  quite  a  sensation ;  it  is  certainly  equal 
to  most  parts  of  Milton.  Hallam  is  looking  very  well,  and  in 
full  force ;  his  marvellous  mind  has  been  gleaning  in  wisdom 
from  every  tract  of  knowledge.  Cousin  said,  "  It  is  a  fit  thing 
that  the  son  of  a  great  historian  should  be  a  great  metaphysician." 
I  found  a  sonnet  from  him  awaiting  me  in  town ;  here  are  the 
last  lines : — 

"  Enough  of  flickering  mirth  and  random  life, 
Yearnings  are  in  them  for  a  lofty  dome  ; 
Trample  that  mask — a  sterner  part  assume, 
Whether  thou  championest  Urania's  strife, 
Or,  marked  by  Freedom  for  her  toga'd  sway, 
Reclaim'st  thy  father's  soon  abandoned  bay/'    .     . 

Living  in  London,  supposing  that  I  had  a  mutton  chop  at  a 
coffee-house  three  days  a  week,  would  at  any  rate  be  cheaper  than 
at  Cambridge.  Gaskell  is  leading  the  Union  at  Oxford  trium- 
phantly. .  .  .  Lord  Monson  has  bought  Cardinal  Fesch's 
collection  of  pictures  for  £150,000. 


It.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Nov.  Uh,  1829. 

Our  debate  on  Wordsworth  and  Byron  went  off  very  ill.  I 
spoke  for  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes — they  tell  me,  very  fluently; 
but  I  was  so  anxious  to  be  quiet  and  simple,  that  I  am  afraid  I 
overshot  my  mark,  and  became  rather  prosy,  and  it  was  alto- 
gether more  a  serious  essay  or  a  sermon  than  a  speech.  Hallam 
spoke  well,  but  shortly;  he  would  be  a  splendid  speaker  if  he 
had  more  nerve.  The  votes  were  only  twenty-three  for  Words- 


EARLY   YEARS.  73 

worth.  Hare  said  the  number  was  too  large,  for  that  there  were 
not  twenty-three  men  in  the  room  really  worthy  to  be  Words- 
worthians. 

Julius  Hare's  remark  was  characteristic  of  the  feel- 
ing of  Cambridge  at  that  period.  The  young  men  of  the 
University  were  living  under  the  shadow  of  two  great 
names,  those  of  Wordsworth  and  of  Shelley.  Milnes 
throughout  his  life  was  proud  of  the  fact  that  as  an 
undergraduate  he  had  done  something  to  generate  the 
enthusiasm  for  Wordsworth,  which  might  almost  be  said 
to  date  from  the  time  of  these  discussions  at  the  Union. 
"  When  I  look  hack,"  he  said,  shortly  before  his  death, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Wordsworth  Society,  "  upon  that 
time,  and  the  so  to  say  mental  proceedings  by  which  it 
was  made  important  to  the  lives  of  all  who  shared  in  it, 
I  find  it  somewhat  difficult  precisely  to  comprehend  the 
cause  of  that  enthusiasm  for  Wordsworth,  ft  was 
contemporaneous  with  a  burst  of  interest  in  the  poetry 
of  Shelley  and  of  Keats.  .  .  .  The  enthusiasm  for 
Keats  is,  I  think,  very  intelligible ;  he  is  essentially  the 
poet  of  youth ;  he  is  the  embodiment,  as  it  were,  of  youth 
and  poetry,  in  the  richness  of  the  imagination  and  in  the 
abundance  of  melodious  power.  We  also,  I  think,  fully 
comprehend,  now  that  Shelley  has  taken  his  just  place 
among  the  poets  of  England,  how  delightful  it  was  to 
our  youthful  interests,  and  I  may  say,  to  our  youthful 
vanity,  to  raise  the  name  of  Shelley  from  the  obscurity, 
I  might  almost  say  even  the  infamy,  which  at  that 
time  attached  to  it,  to  the  high  atmosphere  of  pure 
imagination  in  which  it  now  exists  in  the  estimate  of  all 


74  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

real  lovers  of  British  literature.  But  there  was  no  such 
reason  why  we  should  have  laboured  to  any  similar 
extent  for  the  elevation  of  the  name  and  works  of  Mr. 
Wordsworth.  The  name  of  Wordsworth  was  familiar 
to  the  crowd  at  Cambridge  in  two  ways.  His  brother 
was  the  Master  of  Trinity,  a  venerated  and  respected  old 
gentleman,  the  author  of  a  very  dull  ecclesiastical  bio- 
graphy, who  had  not  recommended  himself  to  the  under- 
graduate mind  by  any  exhibition  of  geniality  or  a  special 
interest  in  our  pursuits,  our  avocations,  or  even  our 
studies.  We  had  at  Cambridge,  in  the  son  of  that  Dr. 
Words  worth,  by  the  name  of  Christopher  Wordsworth, 
a  very  eminent  scholar,  and  not  unagreeable  companion, 
but  he  manifested  in  youth  the  germs  of  that  outwardly 
hard,  though  inwardly  benevolent,  character  which  so 
much,  distinguished  him  as  the  learned,  pious,  excellent 
administrator,  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln."  There  was  some- 
thing, however,  in  the  moral  spirit  of  Wordsworth,  as 
well  as  of  Shelley,  which  touched  the  hearts  of  the  Cam- 
bridge youth  of  that  period,  and  led  them  to  revolt 
against  the  worship  of  Byron,  which  was  then  almost 
supreme  in  the  literary  world. 

Here  it  may  be  well  to  say  something  of  the  Union 
in  that  year  (1829),  and  of  the  men  who  took  part  in 
its  proceedings.  Trinity  College  counted  among  its 
tutors  and  students  an  extraordinary  number  of  men  of 
distinction.  Whewell,  and  Julius  Hare,  and  Connop 
Thirlwall,  as  the  reader  has  seen,  were  among  the 
tutors,  and  Milnes  was  on  affectionate  terms  with  all 
three.  Among  the  undergraduates  were  the  three 


EARLY   DATS.  75 

Tennysons  (Frederick,  Charles,  and  Alfred),  Ralph 
Bernal  (who  subsequently  became  known  to  fame  as 
Mr.  Bernal  Osborne,  Thackeray,  Gr.  S.  Venables,  J.  W. 
Blakesley,  E.  L.  and  Henry  Lushington,  James  Sped- 
ding,  Richard  Trench,  Charles  Rann  Kennedy,  Arthur 
Hallam,  Henry  Alford,  John  Allen  (the  prototype  of 
Major  Dobbin),  W.  H.  Thompson  (subsequently  Regius 
Professor  of  Greek  and  Master  of  Trinity),  Robert 
Monteith,  Edward  Horsman,  and  Thomas  Sunderland. 
The  last-named  of  these  was  the  man  who  filled  the 
greatest  place  in  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries  in  the 
little  world  at  Trinity,  and  who  seemed  to  them  to  be 
destined  to  make  the  deepest  mark  upon  his  generation. 
Speaking  at  the  Inaugural  Proceedings  of  the  Union 
Society,  when  they  entered  their  new  Club-house  in 
1866,  Lord  Houghton,  after  referring  to  the  "low,  ill- 
ventilated,  ill-lit,  cavernous,  tavernous  gallery,  at  the 
back  of  the  Red  Lion  Inn,"  which  was  the  meeting- 
place  of  the  Union  in  his  days,  went  on  to  say,  "There 
was  one  man,  the  greatest  speaker,  I  think,  I  ever  heard, 
a  man  with  the  highest  oratorical  gift,  a  man  of  the 
name  of  Sunderland,  who  only  lives  in  the  memory  of 
his  own  generation,  and  for  this  reason,  that  he  was 
only  known  at  the  Union  at  Cambridge."  How  it 
came  to  pass  that  this  brilliant  student  and  orator,  who 
was  the  autocrat  of  the  Union  and  of  Trinity,  ruling 
supreme  even  over  such  minds  as  those  of  Hallam, 
Tennyson,  and  Milnes,  was  doomed  to  spend  a  long  life 
in  obscurity,  is  a  sad  story,  which  may  be  briefly  told. 
On  leaving  Cambridge,  he  disappeared  from  the  view  of 


76  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

his  contemporaries,  who  never  heard  of  him  again  until, 
nearly  forty  years  afterwards,  in  June,  1867,  there 
appeared  in  the  Obituary  of  the  Times  a  brief  announce- 
ment of  his  death.  Subsequent  inquiries  elicited  the 
fact  that  shortly  after  leaving  Cambridge,  and  whilst 
travelling  upon  the  Continent,  his  brain  became  de- 
ranged, and  the  brilliant  intellect  which  had  been  so 
universally  admired  was  irrevocably  shattered.  The 
attack  of  acute  mania,  which  was  the  first  symptom  of 
the  terrible  catastrophe,  passed  away,  but  it  left  him  the 
victim  of  incurable  delusions,  and  of  habits  the  almost 
inevitable  result  of  his  mental  condition.  Lost  to  his 
old  friends,  he  led  for  years  the  life  of  a  nomad,  wander- 
ing from  place  to  place,  under  the  cloud  of  a  settled 
melancholy,  still  pursuing  the  studies  which  had  in- 
terested him  at  the  University,  still  pouring  forth  his 
thoughts  upon  those  subjects  on  which  he  had  been 
wont  to  speak  so  brilliantly  at  the  Union,  and  at  times 
astonishing  the  traveller  who  encountered  him  in  some 
country  inn,  where  for  the  moment  he  had  fixed  his 
abode,  by  his  unrivalled  command  of  language,  the  vast- 
ness  of  his  knowledge,  and  the  brilliancy  of  his  imagina- 
tion. But,  alas!  in  all  that  he  said  or  wrote,  proofs  of 
the  insanity  which  lurked  within  him  were  to  be  found. 
Death,  when  it  found  him  at  last,  came  as  a  welcome 
termination  to  a  ruined  and  hopeless  career.  The  story 
is  no  uncommon  one  in  this  life,  with  its  manifold 
vicissitudes  and  disappointments,  but  no  one  who  writes 
of  the  Cambridge  of  1829  can  afford  to  omit  from  his 
narrative  the  name  of  Thomas  Sunderland. 


EARLY    YEARS.  77 

It  was  early  in  the  December  of  that  year  that 
the  Cambridge  Union  distinguished  itself  by  sending  a 
deputation  to  the  kindred  society  at  Oxford,  to  maintain 
the  superiority  of  Shelley  to  Byron.  Sir  Francis  Doyle, 
then  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford,  and  Mr.  Gladstone, 
his  fellow-collegian,  invited  the  Cambridge  Union,  which 
had  distinguished  itself  by  the  ardour  with  which  it  had 
championed  the  cause  of  the  poet  whom  Oxford  had 
turned  from  its  doors,  to  send  over  a  deputation  to 
maintain  the  claims  of  its  favourite.  Arthur  Hallam 
(through  whom  the  "Adonais  "  had  for  the  first  time  been 
printed  in  England),  Milnes,  and  Sunderland,  were  the 
men  chosen  to  speak  for  Shelley  and  their  University. 
Years  afterwards  Lord  Houghton,  telling  the  story  of 
the  memorable  expedition,  was  wont  to  say  that  when 
on  behalf  of  himself  and  his  colleagues  he  applied  to  Dr. 
Wordsworth  for  an  "  Exeat,"  he  did  not  make  it  quite 
clear  to  that  venerable  dignitary  whether  Shelley  or 
Wordsworth  was  the  poet  whose  intellectual  character 
was  to  be  defended  by  the  deputation.  "  I  have  always 
had  a  dim  suspicion,  though  probably  I  did  not  do  so, 
that  I  substituted  the  name  of  Wordsworth  for  Shelley." 
However  this  may  be,  the  "  Exeat "  was  granted,  and 
the  three  young  men  went  across  the  snowy  country  to 
Oxford,  to  fulfil  their  self-imposed  task. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Dec.  Uh,  1829. 

MY  DEAR  MOTHER, — The  two  full  letters  on  my  table  remind 
me  of  my  silence,  which  I  fear  has  rather  outstepped  its  proper 
bounds.  I  am  doing-  all  I  can  to  become  methodical,  so  I  will 


78  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

write  you  a  methodical  letter.  First,  facts  and  incidents ;  secondly, 
answers  to  your  letters ;  thirdly,  anything  else.  As  for  the  first 
chapter,  I  think  the  only  point  that  comes  under  that  head  is  the 
day  and  a  half  I  have  spent  at  Oxford.  I  wanted  much  to  see 
the  place  and  the  men,  and  had  no  objection  to  speak  in  their 
society ;  so,  as  they  had  a  good  subject  for  debate  (the  compara- 
tive merits  of  Shelley  and  Byron),  and  Sunderland  and  Hallam 
were  both  willing  to  go — and  the  Master,  when  he  heard  what 
was  our  purpose,  very  kindly  gave  us  an  Exeat — we  drove  man- 
fully through  the  snow,  arriving  in  time  to  speak  that  evening, 
were  feted  the  next  day,  and  saw  the  lions,  and  came  back  the  next 
morning.  The  set  of  men  I  saw  corresponded  very  well  to  my 
own  set  here,  so  I  could  form  a  pretty  just  comparison.  The  man 
that  took  me  most  was  the  youngest  Gladstone  of  Liverpool — I 
am  sure,  a  very  superior  person.  Doyle,  whose  sister  you  have 
met  at  Wheatley,  is  also  clever.  Gaskell  *  is  as  different  as 
possible  from  what  I  expected — very  plain,  completely  unaffected 
and  simple  in  his  manners,  and  good-natured,  even  to  boyishness. 
Sunderland  spoke  first  after  Doyle,  who  opened,  then  Hallam, 
then  some  Oxonians,  and  I  succeeded.  The  contrast  from  our  long, 
noisy,  shuffling,  scraping,  talking,  vulgar,  ridiculous-looking  kind 
of  assembly,  to  a  neat  little  square  room,  with  eighty  or  ninety 
young  gentlemen  sprucely  dressed,  sitting  on  chairs  or  lounging 
about  the  fire-place,  was  enough  to  unnerve  a  more  confident 
person  than  myself.  Even  the  brazen  Sunderland  was  somewhat 
awed,  and  became  tautological,  and  spoke  what  we  should  call  an 
inferior  speech,  but  which  dazzled  his  hearers.  Hallam,  as  being 
among  old  friends,  was  bold,  and  spoke  well.  I  was  certainly 
nervous,  but,  I  think,  pleased  my  audience  better  than  I  pleased 
myself.  The  Oxonian  speaking  is  wretched.  Gaskell's  knack 
of  Parliamentary  phrases  is  wonderful.  He  offered  to  repeat  me 
the  tellers  in  every  debate  for  the  last  sixty  years,  and  suggested  a 
most  amusing  game,  which  consisted  in  each  person  telling  the 
name  of  a  borough  and  of  the  persons  who  represent  it,  and  whoever 

*  His  relative,  James  Milnes  Gaskell,  of  Thorne  House,  Wakefield, 
afterwards  member  for  "Wenlock. 


EARLY   TEARS.  79 

stopped  first  paid  a  forfeit ! !  <f  My  father  and  I/'  he  said, 
"  played  at  it  nearly  a  whole  day  without  stopping." 

I  hope  Gaskell  is  coming  here  to  speak  in  about  a  fortnight. 
The  only  other  news  I  have  for  you,  is  the  dismissal  from  Trinity  of 

an  acquaintance  of  mine,  a  son  of ,  for  rowing,  and  throwing 

Peacock's  books  out  of  the  window  ;  the  anniversary  Club  dinners, 
which  have  overflowed  with  turtle  and  venison ;  and  the  death  of 
the  head  waiter  at  the  "Hoop/'  whom  I  suppose  my  father  knew 
(vulgarly  called  Will  of  the  Hoop),  who  cut  his  femoral  artery  in 
drawing  a  cork,  and  died  in  two  minutes.  The  last  debate  at  the 
Union  was  about  the  hereditary  aristocracy.  I  spoke  almost 
extempore,  and  as  fluently  as  I  could  wish.  I  have  quite  recovered 
the  talking  knack,  but  cannot  acquire  Sunderland's  confidence, 
that  nothing  can  ever  make  him  hesitate  a  single  moment.  The 
Athenaum  is  going  to  be  given  up.  Maurice,  the  editor,  is  going 
into  the  Church,  and  to  try  for  the  first-class  at  Oxford. 

My  Homeric  essay  will  be  out  to-morrow ;  I  shall  send  a 
copy  to  my  grandmother  and  another  to  Mr.  Brown,  but  shall 
let  no  more  go  out  of  this  place.  I  have  corrected  the  style 
very  rigorously,  and  it  certainly  does  not  read  ill.  My  com- 
petitor who  came  in  second  also  prints  his.  .  .  .  Papa's 
definition  of  an  orator  is  so  modest  and  simple  a  one,  that  I  can 
only  equal  it  by  the  schemes  of  the  most  system-drunken  political 
economist.  Tell  him  that  a  time-worn  and  money-less  country 
like  England  has  a  great  deal  more  chance  of  starting  into 
youth  and  health  and  omnipotence  under  the  wand  of  a  political 
theoriser  than — I  will  not  say  of  my  becoming,  but  of  the  world 
ever  seeing  such  an  orator  as  he  images  to  himself.  Tell  him 
that  if  Shakespeare  had  attempted  to  become  a  Laplace,  or  the 
converse,  they  would  both  have  foiled  the  grand  purpose  for 
which  the  Deity  formed  them ;  and  that  a  trial  to  fuse  poetry 
into  the  dry  bones  of  reason  and  fact,  or  to  liquefy  the  latter 
into  the  former,  would  be  as  strange  an  attempt  as  to  convert 
the  fat  Bedford  level  into  a  Chamouni,  or  the  Spliigen  into  the 
Carse  of  Gowrie — each  has  its  use,  each  its  beauty.  Tell  him 
that  a  wise  man  said,  "  Si  cum  natura  sapio  sub  numine,  id  vere 


80  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUOKTON. 

plusquam  satis  est."  I  do  not  say  an  attempt  may  not  be  made 
to  make  an  equilibrium  between  the  faculties  of  the  mind,  but 
for  any  mind  to  be  full  in  its  strength  and  conscious  might,  it 
must  follow  where  nature  leads  it.  I  must  repeat,  as  I  said 
before,  that  if  Parliamentary  influence  is  to  be  exercised  on  the 
venal  and  animal  minds  of  such  men  as  Mr.  Dick,  I  conceive  no 
good  or  great  man  would  ever  try  to  wield  it ;  but  I  hope  it  is 
otherwise.  I  think  the  duty  of  a  statesman  is  solely  to  address 
himself  to  the  aristocracy  of  mind,  and  through  their  minds  alone 
to  influence  the  vulgar.  His  object  is  to  gain  men  who  will  go 
with  him,  not  after  him,  fellow-soldiers,  not  drummers  and 
camp-boys.  Also  tell  mio  padre  that  I  shall  quite  think  it  my 
duty  to  send  to  Metternich  some  information  or  other  about  him, 
that  the  personal  loving-kindness  of  the  Austrians  might  bring 
him  to  a  proper  sense  of  their  government.  A  moral  despotism 
would  be  certainly  the  best  of  governments,  but  a  moral  people 
would  never  submit  to  a  despotism.  .  .  .  I  see  papa  quotes 
Elizabeth  as  a  supporter  of  his  despotical  theory.  She  was  in 
sooth  a  wicked  tyrant,  but  by  a  wonderful  tact  appealed  so 
strongly  to  the  vanity  of  the  people,  and  loaded  them  with  such 
flattering  and  gorgeous  chains,  that  in  the  pride  and  pomp  of 
national  dignity  they  merged  that  of  the  individual.  Is  it  so 
with  the  Milanese  and  their  alien  taskmasters?  But  I  must 
thank  him  for  his  second  letter,  which,  on  Coleridge's  defini- 
^ion  of  a  gentleman  ("a,  man  with  an  indifference  to  money 
matters"),  was  exceedingly  ungentlemanly.  I  really  do  not 
think  but  that  a  very  moderate  fortune  is  enough  to  give  a 
man  a  start  in  Parliament  Canning  was  poor  enough.  If  I 
was  to  become  an  M.P.  for  amusement,  I  see  no  reason  why 
I  should  not  go  into  Parliament  next  year;  but  as  I  have  never 
thought  of  this,  any  more  than  of  living  at  Chats  worth,  it  does 
not  make  a  part  of  the  question.  To  undertake  it  as  a  profession, 
with  my  scant  knowledge  of  the  world,  is  indeed  absurd  at  pre- 
sent. ...  I  had  a  religious  conversazione  last  night,  and  some 
very  good  singing  afterwards.  We  have  had  some  capital  debates 
in  our  society  called  "The  Apostles";  we  attacked  Paley  to-night 


EARLY    YEARS.  81 

The  mention  of  the  Athenaum  in  the  foregoing 
letter  calls  for  a  word  of  explanation.  The  Athenaeum, 
it  will  be  remembered,  was  originally  started  by  Mr. 
James  Silk  Buckingham.  Among  his  contributors  was 
Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  at  that  time  an  under- 
graduate at  Cambridge.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months 
the  Literary  Chronicle  came  into  existence,  Maurice 
being  its  editor ;  and  in  August,  1828,  the  two  pub- 
lications were  merged  under  Maurice's  editorship. 
Milnes,  like  Sterling  and  other  members  of  his  set 
at  Cambridge,  contributed  frequently  to  the  journal 
during  Maurice's  connection  with  it,  and  his  literary 
criticisms  and  essays  in  that  periodical  were  practically 
his  first  contributions  to  the  press. 

The  famous  association  popularly  known  as  "  The 
Apostles,"  of  which  the  first  mention  in  Milnes's  corre- 
spondence is  in  the  foregoing  letter,  has  earned  a  place 
of  its  own  in  the  history  of  Cambridge.  It  was  origin- 
ally started  in  the  year  1820,  under  the  name  of  the 
Conversazione  Society,  and  was  limited  to  twelve  mem- 
bers in  residence ;  the  name  of  Apostles  being  in  the 
first  instance  given  to  the  members  in  derision.  Among 
those  connected  with  the  little  society  in  Milnes's  time 
were  Alfred  Tennyson,  Arthur  Hallam,  Trench,  Alford, 
W.  H.  Thompson,  Blakesley,  Charles  Merivale  (the 
historian  of  Borne),  Gr.  S.  Venables,  and  Edmund  Lush- 
ington,  afterwards  Professor  of  Greek  at  Glasgow. 
Frederick  Maurice,  C.  B.  Kennedy,  and  Spedding,  the 
biographer  of  Bacon,  were  also  members.  The  society 
began  to  be  famous  in  the  time  of  Buller,  Sterling, 


82  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Maurice,  and  Trench.  "  Then  came  the  halo  of  Tenny- 
son's young  celebrity.  .  .  .  Within  the  society  it- 
self there  is  no  hierarchy  of  greatness ;  all  are  friends. 
Those  who  have  been  contemporaries  meet  through  life 
as  brothers  ;  all,  old  and  young,  have  a  bond  of  sym- 
pathy in  fellow-membership  ;  all  have  a  common  joy 
and  a  common  interest  in  the  memory  of  bright  days 
that  are  gone,  of  daily  rambles  and  evening  meetings, 
of  times  when  they  walked  and  talked  with  single- 
hearted  friends  in  scenes  hallowed  by  many  memories 
and  traditions,  or  by  the  banks  of  Cam  or  in  the  lime- 
treed  avenues  of  Trinity,  or  even  within  sound  of  the 
great  organ  of  the  great  chapel  of  King's,  or  in  the 
rural  quiet  of  Madingly  or  Grantchester — sometimes, 
perhaps, 

'Yearning  for  the  large    excitement   which  the   coming   years 
would  yield/ 

but  all,  as  they  stood  on  the  threshold  of  life,  hopeful 
and  happy,  gladdened  by  genial  influences  which  are 
never  forgotten,  and  sunned  by  warm  friendships  of 
youth,  which  never  die." 

So  wrote  Mr.  W.  D.  Christie  of  the  Apostles,  of 
whom  he  had  himself  been  one.  All  who  knew  Lord 
Houghton  knew  also  not  only  how  admirably  he  was 
adapted  to  make  a  prominent  and  popular  figure  in  that 
little  band  of  young  men,  but  with  what  fidelity  and 
tenderness  throughout  his  long  life  he  clung  to  the 
memories  which  the  mention  of  its  name  conjured  up. 

Before  me  lies  a  volume  of  "  Memorials  "  of  his  stay 
at  Cambridge,  gathered  together  by  Milnes  after  he  left 


EARLY    YEARS.  83 

the  University.  It  has  more  than  a  personal  or  bio- 
graphical interest.  There  is  a  list  of  the  Trinity 
College  prizemen  for  1829,  from  which  it  appears  that 
he  took  the  second  English  Declamation  Prize,  Sunder- 
land  taking  the  first ;  and  that  he  also  carried  off  the 
prize  for  the  English  Essay,  the  subject  of  which  was 
the  "  Influence  of  Homer."  It  is  notable  that  the 
motto  on  the  title-page  of  this  essay  was  supplied  by  a 
couplet  from  Tennyson  : — 

"  Listening  the  lordly  music  flowing  from 
The  illimitable  years  " — 

Probably  the  first  lines  ever  quoted  in  this  way  from 
the  great  poet.  There  is  also  a  copy  of  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  Union  Society,  printed  in  1834,  from 
which  it  appears  that  Milnes  first  spoke  in  a  debate  on 
November  13,  1827,  and  that  from  that  time  forward 
he  spoke  frequently  during  his  stay  at  the  University. 
Among  his  fellow-disputants  Sunderland  holds  the 
most  prominent  place ;  but  Charles  Buller,  Kemble, 
Sterling,  Blakesley,  Trench,  Praed,  Hallam,  Venables, 
Thackeray,  Alford,  and  Kinglake,  are  also  mentioned. 

The  little  volume  has  a  special  value  because  it 
contains  the  thin  pamphlet  in  which  the  "  Adonais  "  of 
Shelley  was  first  presented  to  the  English  public, 
Charles  Tennyson's  poem  on  the  expedition  of  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  into  Russia,  Hallam's  "  Timbuctoo,"  and  the 
prize  poem  on  the  same  theme  by  Alfred  Tennyson,  as 
well  as  many  similar  records  of  that  era  in  the  history 
of  Cambridge.  There  is,  too,  the  Epilogue  written 


84  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

to  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  on  the  occasion  of  that 
comedy  being  performed  by  the  Cambridge  Amateur 
Dramatic  Club  on  March  19th,  1830.  From  the  list  of 
performers  it  appears  that  Milnes  took  the  part  of 
Beatrice,  and  also  fulfilled  the  duties  of  stage-manager 
— Kemble,  Hallam,  Edward  Ellice,  Fitzroy,  Monteith, 
O'Brien,  and  Warburton,  being  among  his  fellow-actors. 
The  Epilogue  was  written  by  Milnes,  and  its  closing 
lines  are  as  follows  : — 

"  But,  ere  our  artless  pageant  disappear, 
We  ask  one  boon — if  in  some  after-year 
In  evening  hours  your  eye  should  chance  to  light 
On  any  name  you  recognised  to-night — 
On  some  brief  record  of  their  mortal  lot — 
Married  or  murdered,  ruined,  or  what  not  ? — 
While  natural  thought  returns  upon  its  track, 
Just  pause  and  murmur  ere  you  call  it  back, 
With  pleasant  memory,  sipping  your  liqueur — 
'  Yes,  yes,  he  was  a  Cambridge  Amateur/  " 


CHAPTEE  III. 

LONDON       AND       ITALY. 

London  University — Letters  to  his  Father — Attends  the  House  of  Commons — 
Goes  to  Bonn — Life  at  Milan — Perplexities  of  Life — Venice — Visits  Ireland 
— Aubrey  de  Vere's  Reminiscences — Rome — Wiseman — Meets  Charles 
MacCarthy — Projected  Greek  Tour. 

"  I  OFTEN  wonder  what  will  be  your  future  destiny,  and 
I  think  you  are  near  something  very  glorious,  but  you 
will  never  reach  it.  I  wish  it  were  in  my  power  to  give 
you  all  the  good  I  possess,  and  which  you  want,  for  I 
would  willingly  pull  down  my  hut  to  build  your  palace." 
These  were  the  words  in  which  one  of  his  college 
friends,  Stafford  O'Brien,  wrote  to  Milnes  during  the 
year  1830,  when  his  career  at  Cambridge  was  drawing 
to  a  close.  They  afford  a  glimpse  of  the  estimation  in 
which  the  young  man  was  held  by  his  contemporaries 
at  the  University.  No  one  doubted  his  brilliant  powers 
of  mind — the  eclecticism  of  his  sympathies,  the  gener- 
osity and  geniality  of  his  disposition,  his  love  of  para- 
dox, the  vastness  of  the  field  of  knowledge  which  he 
sought  to  cultivate,  and  the  cosmopolitanism  of  his 
spirit.  All  these  things,  however,  seemed,  in  the  eyes 
of  his  friends,  to  tell  against  his  chance  of  attaining 


86  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

that  future  distinction  which  he  might  otherwise  have 
made  his  own.  It  was,  as  we  have  seen,  no  ordinary 
band  of  young  men  of  whom  he  made  one  at  Cam- 
bridge, nor  was  it  in  itself  a  small  distinction  to  be  the 
friend  and  associate  of  such  men.  That  he  was  recog- 
nised by  the  ablest  among  them  as  the  equal  of  any  is 
proved  alike  by  their  letters  and  by  the  recollections  of 
the  survivors.  >  In  the  eyes  of  many,  indeed,  the  judg- 
ment passed  upon  him  by  Stafford  O'Brien  would  have 
seemed  unwarrantably  despondent,  for  unquestionably 
Milnes  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  that  bright 
company  of  ardent  youths.  Sir  Francis  Doyle  in  his 
Reminiscences  has  told  us  how,  in  the  expedition  to 
Oxford  on  behalf  of  Shelley,  the  oratorical  honours  of 
the  day  fell  to  Milnes,  albeit  Hallam  and  Sunderland 
were  his  competitors  ;  and  again  and  again  in  his  cor- 
respondence at  the  time  there  is  abundant  proof  that  he 
was  not  only  one  of  the  best  beloved  of  the  Apostles, 
but  one  of  whom  his  contemporaries  expected  the 
greatest  things  in  the  future. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  during  the  early  part 
of  1830  Milnes  spent  some  time  in  London  as  a  student 
at  the  then  recently-founded  University  in  Gower  Street ; 
and  in  enrolling  himself  very  early  among  the  under- 
graduates of  that  institution,  he  gave  striking  proof  of 
his  superiority  to  sectarian  and  political  prejudices.  The 
very  name  of  the  University  of  London  stank  in  the 
nostrils  of  those  who  had  been  brought  up  at  the  older 
seats  of  learning,  and  it  was  a  strong  measure  for  an 
actual  student  at  Trinity,  with  the  tastes  and  the 


LONDON  AND   ITALY.  87 

associations  of  Milnes,  to  connect  himself  with  an 
association  so  generally  disliked.  But  his  attendance 
on  the  classes  in  Grower  Street  was  not  without  its 
advantages,  altogether  apart  from  any  improvement  in 
his  education  which  might  result  from  it.  It  afforded 
him  more  frequent  opportunities  for  meeting  that  little 
body  of  Cambridge  men  who  were  now  resident  in  the 
metropolis,  and  of  whom  the  most  eminent  were  John 
Sterling  and  Frederick  Maurice.  Among  the  other 
friends  with  whom  at  this  period  he  came  into  frequent 
contact  were  John  Stuart  Mill  and  the  Kembles,  whose 
son,  J.  M.  Kemble,  was  a  fellow-student  at  Trinity. 
Fanny  Kemble,  the  niece  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  was  charm- 
ing the  town  by  her  acting,  and  Milnes,  like  most  of 
the  young  men  of  his  day,  was  filled  with  admiration 
for  a  genius  so  fine  and  a  heart  so  pure  and  simple.  He 
himself,  it  may  be  remarked  en  passant,  had  attained 
distinction  on  the  boards  of  the  Amateur  Dramatic 
Club  at  Cambridge,  where  his  impersonation  of  certain 
characters,  and  notably  of  Mrs.  Malaprop,  had  roused 
almost  as  much  enthusiasm  among  the  members  of  the 
club  as  Miss  Kemble's  Juliet  had  evoked  in  the  wider 
arena  of  Covent  Garden.  The  frivolous  side  of  life, 
however,  if  the  stage  may  be  said  to  belong  to  it,  by 
no  means  absorbed  his  leisure  moments.  He  was  about 
this  time  a  regular  attendant  at  the  church  of  Edward 
Irving,  for  whom  he  had  a  profound  admiration.  "  He 
is  indeed,"  he  says,  "  the  apostle  of  the  age,  and  his 
English  is  more  like  Jeremy  Taylor's  than  any  I  ever 
read  or  heard." 


88  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Jan.  20M,  1830. 

My  mission  to  Oxford  would  never  have  taken  place  except 
for  that  peculiar  subject  which  you  despise.  It  was  an  earnest 
wish  to  tell  of  and  propagate  that  stupendous  genius  that  took 
me  there.  I  could  not  expect  to  please  much  where  there  were 
no  sympathies  to  excite.  Why  is  he  fatiguing  to  you  ?  Why 
is  he  delightful  to  me  ?  Is  my  mind  better  strung  to  labour 
than  yours  ?  Am  I  less  fond  of  facility  and  lubricity  in  study  ? 
You  will  not  natter  me  by  saying  this.  I  suspect  the  case  to  be 
that,  having  accustomed  yoiirself  to  consider  poetry  "  a  thing  of 
idle  hours  and  vacant  thought/'  when  it  first  presented  itself 
as  a  study  you  were  struck  with  the  change.  Mamma  asks 
whether  I  speak  as  well  as  Sunderland.  I  say,  Certainly  not, 
for  his  speaking  as  an  art  is  perfect ;  his  best  sentences  are 
always  learned  by  heart,,  and  the  common  current  of  his  words 
runs  on  so  fountain-like,  that  you  might  deem  it  was  a  speaking 
automaton  before  you.  Now  mine  is  good  exactly  in  the  pro- 
portion that  I  am  interested ;  I  have  hardly  any  rhetoric.  We 
have  the  "  Education  of  the  People  "  next  term — a  charming 
subject.  I  have  just  read  the  Dissertation  on  Parties.  Mr. 
Hallam  advised  me  to  study  Bolingbroke,  Shaftesburyj  and 
Temple.  He  liked  my  Homer  very  much.  Lord  Lansdowne 
said  "  it  showed  talent,  but  the  writer  was  of  a  school/'  That 
is,  I  suppose,  no  communicant  of  the  high  indivisible  Church  of 
Whig  superficiality  and  useful  knowledge.  A  line  of  books, 
and  I  have  done.  The  two  new  ones  I  have  read  are  Coleridge 
on  Church  and  State,  and  Moore's  Byron.  The  first  has  given 
me  the  only  clear  idea  I  ever  had  of  the  English  Constitution; 
the  second  I  am  delighted  with,  as  I  think  I  completely  antici- 
pated it  in  my  estimate  of  Byron.  Passion,  imagination,  fancy, 
all  were  his,  but  not  the  one  holy  cement  of  poetic  feeling  to 
amalgamate  and  unify  the  whole. 

There  were  many  discussions  about  this  period 
between  Milnes  and  his  father  on  the  subject  of  his 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  89 

future.  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes,  though  he  might  be 
disappointed  at  the  manner  in  which  his  son's  undoubted 
talents  had  developed  themselves,  still  clung  to  the  hope 
that  he  might  make  a  great  figure  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  revive  the  tradition  of  his  own  youthful 
eminence.  Milnes  himself  was  distinctly  ambitious,  and 
was  drawn  almost  as  strongly  towards  the  pursuit  of  poli- 
tics as  towards  the  cultivation  of  literature,  but  he  shared 
the  fastidiousness  of  his  father,  and  was  far  more  inclined 
to  criticise  the  work  of  others  than  either  to  engage  in 
construction  himself  or  to  become  the  mere  follower  of 
a  party  leader.  It  is  not  necessary  to  recall  all  the  dis- 
cussions between  father  and  son  as  to  the  possibilities 
of  a  Parliamentary  career  for  the  latter,  though  here  and 
there  a  few  lines  may  be  given  to  indicate  the  direction  in 
which  the  mind  of  one  or  the  other  was  moving.  In  the 
early  part  of  1830  a  question  of  more  immediate  interest 
than  that  of  his  admission  to  Parliament  occupied  the 
mind  of  Milnes.  His  father  wished  him  to  go  during 
the  summer  to  Paris  for  the  purpose  of  improving  his 
French  pronunciation ;  he,  on  the  other  hand,  was  bent 
upon  going  to  Germany  in  order  to  study  the  German 
language  and  literature ;  and,  as  it  will  be  seen  in  the 
subsequent  correspondence,  he  carried  his  point. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Feb.  1st,  1830. 

.  .  .  Turning1  over  Lord  Byron's  Life  a  week  ago,  I  found 
a  passage  in  one  of  his  journals,  which  applies  very  well  to  my 
Oxford  speech,  which  I  find  people  are  surprised  made  so  little 
impression.  It  is  this  :  after  speaking  of  all  the  orators  of  his 


90  THE    LIFE    OF   LOED   HOUGHTON. 

day,  he  says,  t(  I  heard  Bob  Milnes'  second  speech ;  it  made  no 
impression  whatever."  Voila,  monsieur \  on  pent  parler  lien  sans 
faire  d' impression,  combien  defois  m'avez-vousentendu  direcela? 
I  foresee  this  subject  will  be  a  standing  joke  against  me  at  the 
Union.  I  suppose  you  have  seen  some  extracts  from  the  book  in 
Galignani.  The  letters  are  as  good  as  Horace  Walpole's,  and  two 
or  three  good  stories  of  S.  Davies,  who,  he  says,  could  beat  all 
the  set  in  wit  and  conversation.  Now  for  a  line  about  Germany. 
Sunderland  wishes  to  go  there  with  me — or,  rather,  to  meet  me 
there — and  I  find  that  Kemble,  Trench,  and  Blakesley  will  be  the 
summer  at  Heidelberg.  Kemble  has  just  written  a  letter  which 
would,  I  think,  give  you  a  different  opinion  of  those  universities 
than  you  now  have.  He  says  that  the  depth  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  young  men  there  is  something  he  could  hardly  have  con- 
ceived ;  they  study  everything,  and  everything  well.  He  is  now 
at  Munich,  where  he  is  going  on  very  steadily,  and  reading  very 
hard.  Your  great  error  seems  to  me  to  lie  in  confounding 
superficiality  and  generalisation.  Now  the  great  void  I  find  in 
my  mind  is  that  I  do  study  things  in  reference  to  a  few  facts 
for  a  particular  purpose,  and  not  to  acquire  any  knowledge  of  the 
thing  itself  for  itself.  So  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  my  joining 
the  pious  and  well-disposed  company  who,  consisting  of  ninety 
families  disgusted  with  the  present  condition  of  the  moral 
European  world,  have  issued  from  Germany  and  established 
themselves  on  one  of  the  islands  on  the  Norwegian  coast,  and 
renewed  the  ancient  rites  and  ancestral  religion  of  Thor  and  of 
Odin.  I  have  really  no  great  inclination  for  a  residence  in  Paris 
just  now,  and  I  have  too  many  great  things  to  study  to  give 
attention  to  anything  so  frivolous  as  a  perfect  knowledge  of  a 
language  for  itself  alone — though  good  enough  in  its  way — and 
I  think  you  would  not  hesitate  about  the  advantage  of  reading 
German  or  speaking  French.  .  .  Prince  Leopold  seems  very 
slow  in  deciding  between  the  otium  sine  dignitate  and  the  digni- 
tas  sine  otio  [referring  to  the  offer  of  the  Crown  of  Greece].  A 
battue  was  given  him  the  other  day  at  Ashbridge,  at  which  all 
the  walks  were  swept,  and  hassocks  placed  at  the  corners  of  the 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  91 

covers  for  the  shooters  to  stand  on.     What  a  situation  for  a  king 
of  Sparta  and  successor  of  Pericles  ! 

Sunderland  leaves  Cambridge  to-morrow  [he  writes,  Feb.  llth]. 
I  should  be  very  sorry  to  lose  sight  of  him,  though  he  is  a  man 
whom  I  could  never  make  a  friend  of.  He  yearns  after  power ; 
and  certainly  if  talent  can  force  a  way  to  eminence,  his  will  do  it. 
His  self-conceit  and  contempt  of  all  others  except  the  oligarchy 
of  his  momentary  admiration  will  stand  in  his  way,  but  even 
this  may  be  of  use  in  imparting  to  him  a  dignity  and  high  tone  of 
conscious  power  which  is  so  good  a  substitute  for  rank  and  station. 
R.  M.  H.  to  his  Mother. 

February  26^,  1830. 

.  .  .  Kemble  has  come  back  to  go  into  orders,  having 
had  a  living  given  him,  and  is  up  here  for  his  degree.  He  is 
most  delightfully  unaffected  and  well  informed,  and  seems  to 
have  derived  immense  advantage  from  Germany.  He  has 
talked  to  me  a  good  deal  about  his  sister,  and  seems  very  proud 
of  her,  and  well  he  may  be.  ...  I  read  an  essay  on  the 
state  of  the  country  at  a  society  called  The  Apostles  last 
Saturday.  I  hurried  it  too  much  to  be  very  good.  One  party 
called  it  too  metaphysical,  others  (the  greater  part)  too  practical, 
but  it  took  altogether  very  well.  The  set — that  is,  all  the 
nobles,  &c.,  who  had  been  civil  to  me — dined  with  me  last  week. 
I  gave  them,  I  will  venture  to  say,  the  best  and  the  cheapest 
dinner  ever  given  here.  .  .  .  Harvey  and  O'Brien  and  a 
good  many  others  have  been  getting  up  a  play,  in  which  I  take 
a  second-rate  part,  a  sort  of  city  husband  to  Fitzroy,  who  acts  a 
kind  of  Duchess  of  St.  Albans.  I  could  not  take  a  part  which 
would  take  up  much  time  or  trouble.  The  play  is  Lord 
Glengall's  new  comedy,  The  Follies  of  Fashion.  It  will  be 
acted  next  week.  I  daresay  Harriette  will  laugh,  when  I  tell 
you  that  though  Hallam  and  I  remain  very  intimate,  I  do  not 
see  him  once  for  the  twenty  times  I  am  with  Fitzroy  or  O'Brien. 
The  former  is  really  so  much  attached  to  me  that  I  must  love 
him,  if  he  had  no  other  good  qualities,  and  he  has  so  many. 


92  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

O'Brien  is  fascination  itself.  Did  neither  papa  nor  you  know 
his  mother,  Emma  Noel  ?  We  sing  duets  together,  and  I 
really  think,  if  I  was  with  him  much  longer,  he  would  make  me 
as  good  as  himself.  ...  I  will  now  pass  on  to  Mr.  Milnes. 
You  ask  me,  sir,  what  my  politics  are.  How  strange  a  ques- 
tion! and  one  you  know  I  cannot  answer.  If  there  is  one  thing 
upon  which  I  have  ever  prided  myself,  it  is  on  having  no 
politics  at  all,  and  judging  every  measure  by  its  individual 
merits.  That  by  this  means  I  have  arrived  at  some  political 
principles  is  very  true,  but  they  are  too  general  to  be  applied 
with  any  accuracy  to  business  of  the  day.  That  the  Parliament 
represents  the  intellect,  not  the  will,  of  the  nation ;  that  it  is 
impossible  to  support  a  marrowless  aristocracy,  who  have  nothing 
but  wealth  to  uphold  them  when  the  reverent  feeling  has  ex- 
pired ;  that  the  education  of  the  people  ought  to  proceed  in 
subserviency  to  their  will ;  that  a  free  trade  in  corn  ought  to 
accompany  the  reduction  of  the  funds ;  that  we  ought  to  return 
to  a  metallic  currency ;  that  a  man's  moral  wealth  ought  to 
enter  all  questions  of  political  economy,  in  the  same  way  as 
money's  worth  is  the  thing  desirable,  not  money.  These  and 
some  similar  axioms  are  the  sum-total  of  my  politics,  and  I 
suppose  the  party  which  most  approximates  to  them  is  that  of 
Palmerston  and  Grant,  the  Canningites.  I  was  much  amused 
by  Gaskell's  saying  that  he  should  vote  with  Lord  Clanricarde 
out  of  respect  for  Canning,  but  perhaps  I  may  go  to  the  other 
extreme  ;  however,  I  am  on  the  safe  side.  ...  I  remember 
you  once  told  me  to  lead  the  Union ;  this  I  could  not  do  if  I 
stayed  here  a  century,  and  for  this  reason  :  a  leader  there  must 
be  a  violent  politician  and  a  party  politician,  or  he  must  have  a 
private  party.  I  shall  never  be  the  one  or  have  the  other. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

March  lUh,  1830. 

Sunderland  has  gone  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  to  live  there 
some  time  in  perfect  solitude,  to  expatriate  himself  as  much  as 
he  can,  he  says,  from  human  feelings,  and  "  be  able  to  cut  his 


LONDON    AND    ITALY.  93 

father's  throat  if,  necessary,  in  the  good  cause."  Since  I  wrote 
I  have  made  two  extempore  attempts  at  the  Union ;  the  first  to 
cut  up  a  man  who  had  been  ignorantly  impertinent,  and  with 
folding  my  arms  and  mimicking  Pitt's  antithetical  phrase  (for  in 
sarcasm  alone  is  that  engine  greatly  available),  I  really  made 
great  play.  The  second,  a  great  noisy  speech  of  half  an  hour, 
full  of  invocation  and  clap-trap  in  debate,  which  also  took ;  so  I 
am  rather  pleased.  I  had  Hare  and  Thirlwall  to  dine  with  me 
almost  alone  last  week,  and  a  conversazione  of  all  the  phases  of 
our  literary  microcosm — classics  and  millenarians,  philosophers 
and  politicians — the  most  amusing  farrago  I  ever  saw.  .  .  . 
Kemble  has  talked  to  me  about  his  sister ;  if  the  season  goes  on 
as  it  has  begun,  the  whole  debt  of  the  theatre  will  be  cleared  off 
before  the  end.  Is  not  this  a  fine  thing  for  a  girl  of  sixteen  to 
do  ?  He  told  me  that  he  had  not  heard  from  his  family  for  a  long 
time,  when  one  day  at  Munich  he  took  up  a  newspaper  and  read, 
"  to-morrow  Miss  F.  Kemble  will  appear  in  Juliet."  He  de- 
scribed the  impression  as  a  cold  sword  run  through  his  heart. 
.  Poor  Fred  Tennyson  is  sitting  by  me  while  I  am 
writing.  He  took  up  your  long  letter,  and  said,  "  I  have  no 
one  to  write  to  me  on  such  things."  It  is  most  sad  to  see  this 
highly-talented  being  thrown  away  from  society  and  himself 
by  hard  circumstances  of  temperament  and  fortune.  He  won't 
exert  himself  to  write  for  the  Greek  Ode,  which  be  would  be 
certain  to  get,  out  of  pure  melancholy  idleness.  One  of  his 
brothers  is  publishing  a  volume  of  poems,  which  will  be  out 
to-morrow ;  and  the  youngest  [the  great  poet]  is  publishing  two 
'  little  volumes  with  Hallam,  which  will  be  out  in  about  two 

months. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

March  Nth,  1830. 

...   I  am  writing  for  the  prize  poem,  so  shall  not  take  my 

degree   till   after  it   comes   out.     The   subject,   you   know,   is 

Byzantium,  and  I  am  writing  the  most  Popish,  sober,    noisy, 

half -sentimental,  half -bombastic  thing  I  can.     I  begin  at  once, 

"  To  muse  on  Pera's  slope  at  cool  of  eve," 


94  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

dash  on  through  the  Constantines,  talk  furious  Christianity,  and 
end  with  the  Apocalypse.  If  the  execution  be  as  politic  as  the 
scheme,  I  have  a  good  chance  of  it,  particularly  as  this  year  they 
are  sure  to  give  it  to  one  most  antithetical  to  Tennyson's. 

On  April  4th  he  writes  to  his  mother  his  farewell 
letter  from  his  old  rooms  at  Trinity,  and  the  natural 
sadness  at  the  thought  that  the  "  thing  as  a  part  of  life 
is  all  over  and  for  ever  "  weighs  upon  his  spirits.  Yet, 
even  under  the  influence  of  the  depression,  he  is  able  to 
give  a  graphic  account  of  a  journey  to  St.  Ives  to  hear 
Cobbett  lecture : — 

He  spoke  in  a  barn  to  about  one  hundred  farmers  and 
Cambridge  men.  It  lasted  full  three  hours,  and  he  pever  paused, 
sat  down,  or  recalled  a  word,  but  went  through  the  whole  series 
of  the  causes  of  the  distress :  currency ;  poor  laws ;  Church 
property  ;  Crown  lands ;  standing  army,  &c.,  and  wound  up  with 
radical  reform.  He  was  at  one  time  conversational,  at  another 
humorous,  at  another  eloquent,  yet  all  in  the  same  idiomatic 
phraseology.  The  impression  on  the  farmers  was  decidedly 
favourable,  and  I  was  much  pleased  with  the  whole.  He  came 
here  on  foot,  his  daughters  following  in  his  carriage.  .  .  I  have 
only  heard  two  stories  by  way  of  news  ;  one,  that  the  Duke  of 
St.  Albans  asked  the  showman  of  the  Siamese  boys,  who,  you 
know,  are  joined  together,  whether  they  were  brothers ;  and  the 
other,  that  Prince  Leopold,  being  recommended  to  read  Plutarch 
for  Grecian  lore,  got  the  British  Plutarch  by  mistake,  and  laid 
down  the  Life  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren  in  great  indignation, 
exclaiming  there  was  hardly  anything  about  Greece  in  it. 

From  Cambridge,  Milnes  went  to  Yorkshire,  and 
visited  the  family  house  at  Fryston,  which  had  so  long 
been  practically  closed.  One  of  his  objects  in  doing 
so  was  to  consult  local  friends  of  influence  as  to  the 


LONDON   AND    ITALY.  95 

possibility  of  his  coming  in  for  Pontefract,  on  the 
dissolution  of  Parliament  at  the  death  of  the  King,  an 
event  which  was  then  imminent.  Then  he  returned  to 
town,  and  gave  his  days  to  the  London  University,  and 
most  of  his  nights  to  the  House  of  Commons. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

May,  1830. 

I  have  heard  some  debates  since  I  wrote  last.  The  best  was 
on  the  Jews'  Bill.  O'Connell  spoke  better  than  I  have  ever  heard 
him — energetic,  but  not  well  pointed.  He  ended  with  one  striking 
expression.  He  had  spoken  of  what  lie  had  deemed  the  petty  inter- 
ference of  human  power  in  the  great  works  of  Providence,  that 
the  Jews  had  advanced  in  wealth  and  power  against  all  obstacles, 
and  "  who  will  now  dare  to  say  that  the  arm  of  the  Almighty  is 
shortened  ?  "  There  was  only  one  really  good  speech,  as  far  as 
matter  and  argument — that  of  Lord  Belgrave.  He  was  un- 
answerable, and  his  attempted  confuters  made  great  fools  of 
themselves.  What  a  purling  stream  of  language  Goulburn 
emits !  so  full  of  phrased  nothings  and  gentle  shufflings.  .  .  . 
Sunderland  meets  me  sometimes  at  the  House.  He  rails  against 
all  politics,  and  is  quite  ashamed  of  himself  for  nourishing  such 
a  petty  ambition  as  to  overthrow  the  despicable  antagonists  of 
Parliament.  I  should  much  enjoy  the  effect  of  his  demolishing 
rhetoric  among  Huskisson  and  his  brother-dunderheads.  There 
are  a  few  political  men  wbom  I  want  to  know — very  few — the 
Grants,  Palmerston,  Sir  J.  Graham,  and  Spring  Rice — I  think 
this  is  all.  McCulloch's  lectures  improve  upon  him ;  he  is  too 
abstract  in  his  views,  he  does  not  attend  to  modifications,  but  he 
elaborates  a  principle,  and  gives  it  to  you  to  weave  up  very 
ingeniously.  ...  I  have  been  to  one  or  two  balls,  about  one  a 
week ;  Mrs.  Stanhope's  was  very  agreeable.  Fountain  Wilson 
came  dressed  like  Mawworm.  Lady  Cork*  has  given  me  a  dinner ; 
Hallam,  and  Gait  the  Scotch  novelist,  and  Mr.  Lister  the  author 

*  Lady  Cork  was  his  great-aunt. 


96  THE    LIFE   OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

of  "  Granby,"  and  some  blue  ladies,  were  the  party,  and  some  other 
litterateurs  in  the  evening.  Fanny  Kemble  was  to  have  come,  but 
was  tired  with  acting1.  I  go  to  Mrs.  K/s  some  evening  this  week. 
She  told  me  her  daughter  had  never  seemed  the  least  elated  with 
her  success  till  her  father  told  her  she  had  cleared  him  a  debt  of 
£11,000,  and  then  she  owned  she  was  proud.  She  is  not  eighteen. 
Campbell  *  has  asked  me  to  dine  on  Monday,  and  meet  all  the 
artists.  Nothing  can  exceed  his  civility  to  me-  He  pressed  me 
very  much  to  stay  in  his  house,  as  being  nearer  the  House  of 
Commons  than  this,  and  said  he  hoped  I  would  make  all  possible 
use  of  him.  I  met  Conversation  Sharpe  the  other  night.  He  talked 
much  about  having  been  in  Parliament  with  you.  My  trip  to 
Cambridge  succeeded  very  well.  I  was  feted  outrageously  for 
two  days.  Ellice  had  stupidly  written  me  word  of  a  wrong 
question  for  the  Union,  so  I  was  completely  thrown  on  my 
extempore  resources,  and  succeeded  as  well  as  I  could  have 
expected.  I  spoke  about  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  took  a 
formal  farewell.  Fitzroy  was  so  affected  he  ran  out  of  the  room. 
(Don't  laugh.)  Thirlwall  gave  me  a  supper,  which,  as  he  never 
stirs  out,  I  deem  a  great  favour ;  and,  after  everybody  was  gone, 
asked  me  to  sit  and  talk,  which  we  did  till  past  three  in  the 
morning.  He  was  particularly  anxious  about  my  going  to 
Greece,  said  it  would  be  of  more  use  in  calling  up  my  classical 
knowledge,  and  supplying  me  with  reflection  for  the  rest  of  my 
life,  than  anything.  .  .  .  My  dear  mother's  matronly  letter  ! 
Pray  tell  her  if  Lord  Cleveland  offered  to  bring  me  into 
Parliament  to-morrow,  I  would  refuse  it ;  I  must  work  my  way 
unpatronised,  if  at  all.  I  will  attend  to  all  her  kind  admonitions, 
but  pray  console  her  about  my  growth,  by  Lord  Monson  being 
a  head  less  than  I  am.  Grattan  and  Fox  were  both  little  men, 
and  so  was  St.  Paul.  ...  I  have  seen  something  of  Fitz- 
clarence.  He  seemed  in  good  spirits  at  his  uncle's  approaching 
departure.  The  eldest  brother  is  to  be  made  a  peer,  and  the 
other  ones  to  have  the  titles  of  duke's  younger  sons.  I  think 
this  is  very  fair. 

*  The  poet. 


LONDON  AND   ITALY.  97 

In  the  middle  of  June,  Milnes  left  London  for 
Germany ;  he  travelled  by  way  of  Brussels,  being 
anxious  to  see  the  field  of  Waterloo.  On  the  road 
he  met  a  party  of  Oxonians  on  a  holiday  tour,  one 
of  whom  recognised  in  him  the  defender  of  Shelley. 
So,  for  the  remainder  of  his  journey,  he  had  com- 
panions; and  sixpenny  whist  on  the  top  of  the  diligence 
made  the  hours  flow  pleasantly.  His  first  impression 
of  Bonn  was  one  of  disappointment ;  the  place  looked 
black  and  dull  in  the  driving  rain  as  he  arrived  at 
nightfall ;  but  in  the  morning  he  was  delighted  with 
it,  and  found  it  just  such  a  spot  as  that  in  which 
literature  ought  to  have  a  home.  "I  called  on  Pro- 
fessor Brandis  with  Thirlwall's  letter ;  he  was  all 
politeness,  went  over  the  town  with  me  to  look  for 
lodgings,  and  introduced  me  to.  a  metaphysical  tutor. 
On  returning  I  found  the  card  of  Privy  Councillor 
Niebuhr.  .  .  .  Who  were  at  the  door  but  Augustus 
Fitzroy  and  Sandwich  !  They  had  stopped  on  purpose  to 
see  me,  and  were  just  going  off.  There  are  here  about 
950  students,  very  nice-  (not  clean-)  looking.  Some 
are  just  now  passing  by,  with  their  arms  about  one 
another's  necks,  chorussing  with  fine  voices."  He 
enjoyed  his  stay  at  Bonn,  which  lasted  over  several 
months,  and,  as  he  took  care  to  live  entirely  among 
Germans,  he  made  good  progress  in  his  knowledge 
of  the  language ;  reading  omnivorously  among  the 
standard  authors,  and,  as  usual,  losing  no  opportunity 
of  making  the  acquaintance  of  the  celebrities  of  the 
place. 


98  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Sister. 

Bonn,  July  14M,  1830. 

.     .     .     You    must    have    indeed    been    wonder-struck    at 
Venice;    there  are  two  beautiful   lines  of  Wordsworth's  about 

it— 

"  And  when  she  took  unto  herself  a  mate, 
She  must  espouse  the  everlasting  sea/' 

which  papa  will  explain  to  you.  It  must  have  been  delightful 
to  float  in  those  soft  gondolas  all  day,  and  dance  all  night  .  .  . 
I  have  bought  all  the  students'  songs,  which  are  very  simply 
delightful.  They  walk  about  the  streets  at  night  singing  them 
in  very  excellent  time ;  they  all  have  good  voices.  There  is  a 
great  difference  in  their  appearance,  in  general  shabbily  dressed, 
with  very  long  hair,  moustache,  and  a  pipe,  on  which  the  senti- 
mental ones  have  a  portrait  in  enamel  of  their  lady  love,  by 
whom  the  ornaments  of  their  favourite  pipe  are  also  worked. 
There  are  about  four  duels  a  day  at  a  village  a  little  distance  off; 
the  combatants  are  padded  all  over  except  the  breast,  arms,  and 
lower  part  of  the  face,  and  have  a  large  woollen  and  steel  cap 
over  their  eyes.  The  sword  has  a  round  sharp  point,  and  never 
hardly  makes  any  more  wound  than  a  little  scratch,  which  must 
be  an  inch  long  and  cut  through  two  skins.  The  general  word 
of  offence  is  Dummer  Junge,  which  if  your  dearest  friend  call  you 
you  must  fight  him.  There  are  two  or  three  very  violent  words  for 
which  they  go  out  with  the  sabre,  which  is  really  dangerous. 
.  .  .  I  dine  every  day  at  one  o'clock;  it  is  excessively  dis- 
agreeable, as  I  am  sleepy  all  the  afternoon.  It  costs  about 
two  and  a  half  francs,  and  the  only  fault  is  that  it  lasts  full  an 
hour  and  a  half,  and  consists  of  six  regular  courses.  A  great 
many  professors  dine  there,  but,  as  they  all  sit  together,  I 
cannot  get  much  out  of  them.  I  went  last  Sunday,  with  one  of 
the  Bullers  who  is  here,  to  an  island  called  Nonnenwert,  a  little 
beyond  the  Drachenfels.  I  dined  there,  and  afterwards  walked  to 
drink  tea  with  Madam  Schopenhauer,  a  great  German  authoress, 
a  particular  friend  of  Goethe's.  She  speaks  English  perfectly, 
and  was  not  at  all  pedantical.  I  am  to  be  introduced  to  Schlegel 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  99 

this  week.  He  thinks  a  great  deal  more  of  rank  and  political  emi- 
nence than  anything1  else,  so  I  wish  I  could  say  that  papa  had 
been  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  if  it  was  only  for  twenty- 
four  hours.  He  is  insufferably  vain  of  his  person,  though  near 
seventy,  and  arranges  his  wig  from  a  little  looking-glass  in  his 
snuff-box,  and  ill-natured  people  say  he  rouges.  We  have  at  last 
got  some  tolerable  weather,  and  these  little  hills  (they  call  them 
mountains)  look  pretty  enough.  The  gliding  down  the  stream  of 
the  Rhine  by  starlight,  or  an  evening  walk  by  the  lamps  of  the 
fireflies,  will  be  my  favourite  amusement. 

The  death  of  George  IV.,  which  occurred  at  the 
close  of  June,  caused  the  dissolution  of  Parliament 
in  the  following  month,  and  a  proposal  reached  Milnes 
that  he  should  stand  for  Pontefract.  Naturally  the 
young  man  was  not  a  little  excited  by  the  prospect  of 
thus  entering  Parliament.  "  I  cannot  bear  the  idea  of 
giving  up  so  enticing  a  prospect,"  he  writes  to  his 
father,  "  which  would  enable  me  to  secure  a  seat  not 
only  for  this,  but  probably  for  the  next  Parliament,  for 
nothing.  Why  need  I  open  my  mouth  next  Parlia- 
ment ;  why  even  need  I  be  all  the  session  in  town  ? " 
His  father,  however,  saw  difficulties  in  the  way,  especially 
money  difficulties,  and  was  anxious  to  defer  his  son's 
entrance  upon  political  life  until  a  later  period.  The 
latter  was  compelled  to  acquiesce  in  his  decision.  Per- 
haps he  found  some  consolation  for  the  disappoint- 
ment in  the  fact  that  one  of  his  friends,  who  had 
recently  entered  Parliament,  Charles  Buller,  did  not 
achieve  the  success  anticipated  for  him  in  the  House. 

Mrs.  Buller  seems  much  disappointed  in  her  son's  ill-fortune 
in  the  House.  He  has  had  six  regularly  prepared  speeches,  I 


100  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

believe  of  very  high  merit,  without  having  obtained  a  hearing-, 
and  this  continual  repulse  has  made  him  more  nervous  than  when 
he  began.  He  must,  however,  do  something.  They  are  talking 
much  of  a  Mr.  Hyde  Villiers,  who  seems  to  have  made  a  great 
impression  on  the  House.  He  has  been  four  years  in  Parliament, 
and  never  had  an  opportunity  of  making  himself  heard.  How 
excessively  disgusting  this  must  be !  Mrs.  Buller  told  me  to 
ask  papa  what  he  would  recommend  to  a  young  man  who  wished 
to  acquire  Parliamentary  confidence,  and  what  he  did  to  speak  so 
calmly  at  first.  Would  he  advise  any  artificial  excitement  to  a 
very  nervous  man  ?  Sir  James  Mackintosh  always  took  opium. 
I  saw  a  letter  from  a  very  acute  m  n  the  other  day,  saying  that 
Lord  Althorp  was  certainly  the  most  rising  man  in  the  House, 
and  to  whose  party  a  young  man  ought  now  to  attach  himself 
if  he  meant  to  stick  by  any  party  at  all.  ...  I  am  waiting 
very  patiently  for  my  father's  absolute  negative  about  Pomfret 
to  send  to  Rodes.  I  wish  he  would  write  to  thank  him  and  Lord 
Mexborough  for  the  interest  they  have  taken  about  me. 

Whilst  he  was  attending  the  lectures  at  the  Univer- 
sity came  news  of  the  Revolution  in  Paris. 

If  you  think  [he  wrote  to  his  father]  that  the  event  came 
coldly  to  the  bookish  men  you  are  wont  to  jeer  at,  you  are  much 
mistaken.  Niebuhr  interrupted  his  course,  and  gave  a  very 
eloquent  lecture  on  it.  Schlegel  said  he  had  expected  it  all ; 
and  the  Liberals  looked  mysterious  and  said  they  knew  where  it 
would  extend  to.  ...  I  am  now  not  without  hope  of  the 
liberation  of  Lombardy.  To  no  power  is  the  shock  so  terrible 
as  to  Austria.  Every  plank  of  the  Imperial  throne  must  quiver. 
Metternich  "  must  have  talked  in  his  sleep  "  the  night  he  heard 
of  it,  but  I  fear  it  will  take  both  time  and  toil  to  render  Austria 
and  even  Lombardy  fit  for  freedom. 

After  leaving  Bonn,  Milnes  joined  his  family  at 
Milan,  where  he  spent  part  of  the  winter  with  them. 


LONDON  AND   ITAL?.  101 

The  yoke  of  the  Austrians  at  this  time  pressed  with 
special  severity  upon  the  Milanese,  and  there  was  great 
dejection  in  the  city  in  consequence.  Arrests  were  con- 
stantly being  made,  and  as  they  were  generally  accom- 
panied by  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the 
prisoner,  they  involved  the  ruin  of  his  family.  Among 
the  friends  whom  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milnes  had  made  during 
their  stay  in  Milan,  there  was  hardly  a  family  which 
had  not  some  member  of  it  in  prison.  The  Austrian 
officials  did  their  best  to  conceal  the  general  discontent 
by  the  exercise  of  profuse  hospitality,  but  the  invita- 
tions to  the  Governor's  balls  were  never  accepted  by  the 
Milanese,  and  their  cards  offering  excuses  for  their  non- 
attendance  were  always  bordered  with  black.  There  is 
no  need  to  say  that  Richard  Milnes's  sympathies  were 
wholly  with  the  Italians  in  their  unhappy  position,  but 
both  he  and  the  other  members  of  his  family  were  on 
friendly  terms  with  Austrians  as  well  as  Milanese. 

From  Mrs.  Milnes's  Journal.     1830. 

As  Richard  wished  to  go  to  the  Court  balls,  I  had  an  audience 
with  the  Archduchess,  the  Vice-Regina.  Mr.  Money,  who  then 
acted  as  our  Consul  at  Milan  and  Venice,  having  written  giving 
the  particulars  of  my  family  and  rank,  &c.,  I  had  an  audience  in 
the  morning  with  the  Vice-Regina,  and  only  the  ladies  of 
honour.  She  begged  me  to  sit  down  by  her  on  the  sofa,  and 
kept  me  in  conversation  very  agreeably  for  two  hours.  Richard 
had  accompanied  me,  and  during  this  time  was  paying  his  devoirs 
to  the  Viceroy- Rainer,  .brother  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria. 
He  conversed  on  literature  and  politics,  and  asked  Richard  a 
good  many  questions  about  Cobbett  and  O'Connell.  Before  I 
left  the  Vice-Regina  she  said,  "  I  have  a  request  to  make  to  you. 


102  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    SOUGHTON. 

I  hear  you  have  a  very  charming  little  girl,  and  I  am  particularly 
anxious  to  see  her.  Will  you  bring  her  with  you  to  my  ball  to 
be  given  for  the  marriage  of  the  Queen  of  Hungary  ?"  I  said 
I  had  not  taken  her  anywhere,  being  too  young.  However, 
she  said  so  much  about  it  that  I  answered  I  could  not  refuse  her 
Highness,  and  was  highly  flattered.  The  Queen  of  Hungary 
was  married  by  proxy,  and  her  beautiful  sister,  afterwards 
Queen  of  Naples,  was  there,  also  the  King  and  Queen  of 
Sardinia.  Marie  Louise  (wife  of  Napoleon)  requested  to  come 
to  the  ball,  but  they  shut  the  gates  against  her.  It  was  a  most 
splendid  and  brilliant  ball,  and  the  attention  of  the  Vice-Regina 
was  highly  gratifying.  She  is  a  very  handsome  woman,  with  a 
fine  figure,  very  agreeable  and  amiable. 

Mr.  Milnes  was  at  this  time  in  England.  His  son 
remained  at  Milan  with  his  mother  and  sister.  It  was 
the  longest  sojourn  he  had  yet  made  in  Italy,  and  he 
greatly  enjoyed  the  opportunity  of  becoming  intimate 
with  Italian  society. 

Miss  Caroline  Milnes,  to  whom  the  following  letter 
was  addressed,  was  one  of  the  sisters  of  Mr.  B.  P.  Milnes. 
She  and  two  other  sisters — Louisa  and  Jane — never 
married,  and  throughout  their  lives  stood  almost  in  the 
relationship  of  sisters  to  their  nephew.  The  affection 
which  existed  between  them  and  Richard  Milnes  was, 
indeed,  remarkable,  and  deserves  special  notice  here. 
The  eldest  of  the  three  ladies  was  Louisa,  who,  born  in 
1791,  attained  a  great  age,  surviving  her  nephew,  and 
dying  in  1886.  The  next  in  order  of  age  was  Caroline, 
who  was  born  in  1792,  and  died  in  1869  ;  whilst  the 
youngest  was  Jane,  born  in  1801,  who  died,  a  few  months 
before  Lord  Houghton,  in  1885.  Miss  Jane  Milnes 
always  stood  in  the  relationship  of  an  elder  sister  to 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  103 

Milnes.  To  her  and  her  sisters  throughout  his  life  he 
confided  all  his  hopes  and  his  troubles,  certain  of  the 
sympathy  with  which  they  followed  him  throughout  his 
career.  In  later  years,  owing  to  the  delicate  health  of 
Miss  Caroline  Milnes,  the  three  sisters  took  up  their 
residence  at  Torquay ;  but,  so  long  as  the  infirmities  of 
age  permitted  them  to  travel,  they  regularly  spent 
the  autumn  and  winter  at  Fryston.  Many  visitors  to 
Fryston  can  recall  the  venerable  ladies,  whose  graceful 
simplicity  of  manner  only  heightened  the  effect  of  their 
intelligence,  and  lent  an  additional  charm  to  their  store 
of  old-world  memories.  Miss  Louisa  Milnes  had  been 
in  Paris  at  the  same  time  as  her  brother,  and  was  an 
eye-witness  of  the  entrance  of  Louis  XVIII.  into  the 
city — an  event  which  far  on  in  the  eighties  she  would 
describe  vividly  to  those  with  whom  she  conversed.  She 
was  the  first  member  of  the  family  to  abandon  Unita- 
rianism.  All  three  sisters  were  educated  far  above  the 
average  of  the  women  of  their  time.  In  his  early  life 
they  did  much  to  stimulate  Milnes's  intellectual  pro- 
gress, whilst  their  affection  for  him,  and  his  wife  and 
children  in  after-years,  was  of  such  a  character  that  no 
account  of  his  life  would  be  complete  in  which  it  passed 
unnoticed. 

R.  H.  M.  to  Miss  Caroline  Milnes. 

Milan,  February,  1831. 

DEAREST  CAROLINE, — I  must  answer  your  charming  letter, 
though  very  briefly  and  very  dully.  The  first,  because  the  post 
is  just  going  out ;  and  the  second,  because  you  must  before  this 


104  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

have  seen  my  dear  papa,  and  he  will  have  told  you  of  all  oxir 
late  goings  on.  Since  he  has  gone  I  have  had  a  few  balls, 
where  the  Germans  put  my  waltzing  to  shame,  which  was 
thought  very  tolerable  in  London ;  and  actually  scoff  at  my 
gallopade,  which  was  thought  much  above  par.  Indeed,  if  I 
depended  upon  the  resources  of  society  entirely,  I  should  find 
this  place  very  stupid.  The  opera,  though  good  in  itself,  does 
not  please  me  as  a  social  assembly,  as  I  can  never  talk  at  my 
ease  in  a  box,  and  as  the  conversation  suggested  by  the  place  is 
always  the  same,  the  monotony  to  me  is  intolerable. 

Pasta  is  in  her  full  glory,  and  as  I  know  her  a  little  in 
private,  it  adds  to  my  pleasure  in  her  public  exhibitions.  The 
people  who  constitute  this  society  do  not  go  well  with  taste. 
There  is  undoubtedly  a  good  deal  of  beauty  and  some  affability 
to  strangers,  but  the  Italian  women  are  in  general  grossly 
ignorant;  and  the  men — whose  only  employment  is  paying 
their  devoirs  to  the  women — if  they  have  anything  in  them,  are 
afraid  to  display  it.  I  am  reading  English  with  some  diligence, 
and  have  conceived  and  written  somewhat  of  a  novel ;  whether 
it  will  ever  reach  its  termination,  Heaven  knows.  My  heroine 
is  a  composition  of  you  and  Lady  M. — two  ingredients  rather 
different,  but  which  amalgamate  well.  I  am  sorry  at  the  arrest 
of  O'Connell;  not  but  that  he  would  deserve  all  the  Government 
could  do  to  him,  but  I  am  certain  they  will  not  get  a  jury 
firm-hearted  enough  to  convict  him  in  the  present  state  of 
Ireland.  It  is  as  much  as  the  life  of  any  man  amongst  them 
is  worth.  Here  I  only  hear  echoes  and  distant  reports  of 
English  literature.  I  expect  the  second  volume  of  Moore's 
"  Byron  "  with  very  much  interest,  not  so  much  for  the  hero 
himself,  but  for  the  many  interesting  names  associated  with 
him  in  his  sojourn  in  the  South.  I  hear  Theodore  Hook's 
"  Maxwell "  is  good,  as  everything  he  writes  must  be,  particu- 
larly when  he  gets  into  middle  life.  I  met  him  in  London  at 
the  Kembles',  and  thought  him  most  amusing.  I  was  much 
shocked  at  Niebuhr*s  death.  The  wicked  breath  of  this  age  is 
strong  to  blow  out  great  lamps 


LONDON   AND    ITALY.  105 

The  perplexities  which  surrounded  Milnes's  own  life 
at  this  time  were  very  great,  and  undoubtedly  they  cast 
a  shadow  of  despondency  over  even  his  bright  spirit. 
Enough  has  already  been  revealed  to  show  the  reader 
that  his  father  was  not  altogether  an  easy  man  to  get 
on  with.  The  great  ambition  which  he  had  on  his  son's 
behalf  was  allied  to  a  strong  dislike  of  the  latter's 
literary  tastes.  Nor  was  this  all ;  the  family  embar- 
rassments were  not  grave,  but  they  were  apparently 
exaggerated  by  Mr.  Milnes,  who,  at  the  very  time 
when  he  was  urging  his  son  to  prosecute  his  political 
studies  and  to  practise  oratory  with  increased  vigour, 
was  warning  him  that  in  all  probability  he  would 
never  be  able  to  make  such  provision  as  would  enable 
him  to  enter  Parliament.  All  this  was  very  trying 
to  Milnes,  but  it  is  only  right  to  state  that  he  bore, 
with  a  sweetness  of  temper  remarkable  in  one  of 
his  impetuous  disposition,  the  continuous  thwarting  of 
his  wishes  which  attention  to  his  father's  injunctions 
involved. 

In  February  he  received  from   his  college  friend 
Monteith  a  welcome  batch  of  news  from  Cambridge. 

Spedding-  [he  said]  has  just  finished  his  prize  declamation, 
which  has  been  greatly  praised  on  all  hands.  Alfred  Tennyson, 
calling  on  Whewell,  said,  "  It  quite  smells  of  Spedding."  To 
which  the  enthusiastic  tutor  rejoined,  "  And,  my  dear  sir,  a  rare 
good  thing-  to  smell  of  too/'  Such  an  encomium  has  done  him 
a  deal  of  good.  Hallam  in  all  likelihood  is  to  have  the  de- 
clamation prize  for  this  year.  It  was  verily  splendid  to  see  the 
poet  Wordsworth's  face,  for  he  was  there,  kindle  as  Hallam 
proceeded  with  it.  Blakesley  has  lately  fathered  a  new  debating 


106  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

society,  modestly  called  <(  The  Fifty/'  It  seems  in  a  fair  way 
to  drag  on  a  languid  existence  for  a  good  time ;  but  after  all, 
popular  tumult  is  a  great  excitement  in  matters  of  this  kind; 
and  we  are,  as  Yorke  says,  "  so  damned  gentlemanly "  that  all 
spirit  seems  evaporated.  The  Union,  God  pity  it,  is  nearly  at 
death's  door.  Perhaps  the  election  of  O'Brien  as  president  may 
restore  its  character  a  little,  but  in  fact  it  only  exists  from  its 
reading-room  and  library.  Have  you  seen — by-the-bye,  you 
cannot — the  review  of  Tennyson's  poems  in  the  Westminster  ? 
It  is  really  enthusiastic  about  him,  and  is  very  well  written  on 
the  whole.  If  we  can  get  him  well  reviewed  in  the  Edinburgh, 
it  will  do. 

One  great  pleasure  he  had  during  his  stay  in  Italy 
at  this  time :  it  was  his  visit  for  the  first  time  to 
Venice. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Venice,  March  25^,  1831. 

"  Water,  water  everywhere/'  and  thus  no  light  for  picture- 
seeing.  .  .  .  For  four  days  of  bright  weather  I  have  much 
enjoyed  this  great  city.  Beauty  and  art  and  memories  are  so 
plentiful  that,  notwithstanding  many  discomforts,  it  seems  to 
me  the  fittest  resting-place  for  an  intellectual  and  poetical  man 
that  my  eye  has  ever  rested  on;  and,  if  I  mistake  not,  there 
will  not  pass  any  five  years  of  my  life  without  some  months  on 
the  Grand  Canal.  To  the  mere  sightseer  I  can  imagine  it 
almost  disappointing.  Canaletti  has  prevented  any  impression 
of  novelty,  and  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  town  implies  a 
certain  monotony.  I  have  been  introduced  by  Count  Albrizzi 
into  the  four  or  five  coteries,  the  debris  of  Venetian  society. 
The  tone  of  conversation  is  much  higher  than  at  Milan,  and 
there  is  an  appearance  at  least  of  hospitality  that  the  Corsia  di 
Serni  shows  little  of.  The  Moneys  have  given  me  a  dinner,  and 
are  so  kind  ;  and  then  they  have  with  them  a  great  attraction 
to  me  in  Lady  Campbell,  who  arrived  the  same  day  I  did  from 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  107 

Rome,  as  fascinating  as  ever.  ...  I  can't  make  out  what 
you  mean  by  saying  that  it  is  essential  I  should  go  to  Rome 
just  now.  It  is  such  a  mockery  to  go  to  Rome  for  three  weeks ; 
it  would  be  a  disgrace  to  anyone  above  a  cheesemonger  or  a 
chancery  lawyer  in  intellect.  I  could  not  do  it.  The  pain  of 
leaving  it  would  so  far  exceed  any  pleasure  I  could  enjoy  there 
that  the  money  and  the  time  would  be  equally  lost.  And  why 
I  should  not  go  now  :  first,  I  could  not  get  there  in  time  for  the 
Holy  Week;  second,  on  account  of  the  political  disturbances 
all  the  public  places  are  shut  up.  Lady  Campbell  was  not  able 
to  see  a  single  statue,  and  very  few  pictures,  while  she  was  there, 
the  Vatican  being  hermetically  sealed ;  and  as  I  and  the  Austrians 
would  enter  Rome  about  the  same  time,  the  inconvenience  would 
not  be  lessened ;  thirdly,  I  have  not  read  a  line  for  Rome  this 
winter,  and  Thirl  wall  told  me  I  might  as  well  not  go  there  at 
all  if  I  had  not  studied  it  topographically  closely  before ;  and, 
fourthly,  I  have  got  no  letters  to  anybody  there,  and  cannot 
imagine  who  are  the  dinner-giving  friends  I  was  to  meet  with 
according  to  one  of  your,  letters.  P.  I  delight  in  in  his  way, 
but  for  a  sympathetic  companion  in  the  Eternal  City  —  ?  It 
will  be  strange  if  I  do  not  find  sometime,  however,  a  winter  to 
dedicate  to  Rome  and  to  things  of  Rome.  It  may  possibly  be 
the  next  one.  If  the  weather  brightens  I  intend  next  week  to 
go  and  see  the  Roman  Amphitheatre  at  Pola,  and  if  I  find  it 
easy,  may  probably  go  for  a  day  to  Zara  to  see  what  a  Dalma- 
tian city  is  like.  Returning  here,  I  shall  go  by  Bologna  to 
Florence  to  Hare  and  Landor,  and  thence  to  Casa  Arconati. 
This  part  of  the  road  will  be  quite  quiet,  as  Frimont  entered 
Bologna  without  a  blow.  Indeed,  these  cracker  revolutions  are 
of  very  little  interest.  People  are  only  anxious  about  General 
Zucchi,  who  will  certainly  be  shot  if  he  is  caught — a  hard  fate 
for  one  of  Napoleon's  favourite  generals.  .  .  .  Whatever  be 
the  fate  of  the  Reform  Bill,  the  Whigs  have  done  a  great  crime. 
It  is  clear  as  daylight  that  it  cannot  pass  the  Lords,  and  thus 
the  middle  ranks  will  become  at  last  persuaded  that  the  rejectors 
of  the  Bill  are  their  oppressors,  and  there  will  be  a  still  further 


108  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

schism  between  them  and  the  aristocracy  at  a  time  when  above 
all  others  union  is  power.  You  say  the  measure  is  not  demo- 
cratic. Perhaps  not ;  but  it  subverts  the  anchor  principle  of  our 
Constitution,  recognised  by  the  Whig  historian  Hallam,  that  the 
House  of  Commons  represents  the  commonalty  of  Great  Britain 
— that  is,  all  the  community,  from  the  king  to  the  peasant — and 
establishes  in  its  stead  a  democratic  principle  which  can  only 
be  balanced  by  an  extension  of  corrupt  influence  on  the  part  of 
the  aristocracy,  the  very  thing  which  the  Bill  professes  to  wish 
to  subvert.  ...  I  should  indeed  have  enjoyed  answering 
Macaulay  or  R.  Grant.  I  suppose  poor  Buller  dare  not  speak  ; 
his  Radicalism  and  family  interests  are  so  fearfully  at  war  with 
each  other.  ...  I  am  amused  at  your  vituperation  of  my 
brother  essayist,  Kerry,  and  also  Spedding,  which  I  am  sure  is 
beautiful.  He  is  a  regular  Utilitarian,  opposed  to  Hare  in 
everything,  and  a  scrupulously  chaste  writer.  He  was  the  best 
Latin  composer  of  my  year.  If  you  had  only  looked  at  the 
Gem,  you  would  have  seen  that  I  only  sent  for  it  because  it 
contained  some  of  Tennyson's  finest  poetry.  Have  you  read  the 
review  of  him  in  the  Westminster  ? 

The  mention  in  the  foregoing  letter  of  the  names  of 
Hare  and  Landor  recalls  the  fact  that  at  that  time 
Julius  Hare,  Milnes's  old  tutor  at  Trinity,  was  living  in 
Italy  in  close  intimacy  with  Walter  Savage  Landor.  It 
was  through  Hare  that  Milnes  first  became  acquainted 
with  the  older  poet,  of  whom  in  his  "  Monographs  "  he 
has  given  us  so  touching  and  sympathetic  a  sketch.  But 
if  we  may  trust  the  statement  he  makes  in  that  account 
of  Landor,  it  was  not  until  1833  that  their  acquaintance 
actually  began.  At  the  end  of  May  Milnes  returned  to 
England,  and  proceeded  to  Cambridge  to  take  his  degree. 
"The  public  orator,"  he  writes,  "made  a  very  pretty 
Latin  speech,  presenting  me,  principally  about  papa, 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  109 

whom  he  traced  through  Cambridge  into  the  House, 
&c.,  &c.,  and  after  having  said  that  I  was  '  et  nohilitate 
et  pramus,  omnibus  honoribus  dignus?  called  me  indole  et 
natu  ceque  ac  studio  oratori" 

He  spent  some  weeks  in  town,  hearing  the  debates 
in  the  House,  Macaulay  being  one  of  the  speakers, 
dancing  at  Almack's,  dining  at  Lord  Barham's  to  meet 
an  Indian  Brahmin,  who  was  making  a  furore,  and  had 
taken  an  immense  fancy  to  him ;  in  company  with 
Hallam  listening  to  the  preaching  of  Edward  Irving, 
and  the  first  manifestation  of  "  the  tongues,"  and  de- 
ploring the  fact  that  he  had  not  seen  the  lion  of  the 
season,  Don  Pedro,  who  "  at  Mrs.  William  Gruelph's 
last  hop "  (as  the  Republican  called  the  Queen's  ball) 
was  the  gayest  of  the  gay,  and  seemed  to  forget  both 
his  daughter  and  his  throne. 

The  summer  and  autumn  were  devoted  to  a  visit  to 
Ireland,  undertaken  in  the  first  instance  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  his  college  friend  Richard  Trench.  It  was  the 
first  of  many  visits  paid  by  him  to  the  sister- island,  where 
in  due  season  he  formed  not  a  few  of  the  most  warmly 
cherished  friendships  of  his  life,  and  where  even  at  that 
time  he  had  not  a  few  good  friends.  Eliot  Warburton, 
the  distinguished  and  ill-fated  author  of  "  The  Crescent 
and  the  Cross,"  was  one  of  these,  and  it  was  partly  for 
the  purpose  of  seeing  him  that  Milnes  made  his  present 
journey.  In  travelling  from  London  to  Liverpool  he 
had  his  first  experience  of  the  railway. 


110  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Dublin,  August  3rd,  1831. 

I  should  have  written  to  thank  you  for  your  amusing  letter 
and  Harriette's  scrap  of  German  from  London,  but  I  thought  it 
better  to  wait  till  I  had  surmounted  the  dangers  of  the  railroad 
and  the  passage.  The  former  rather  disappointed  me.  We 
went  quick  enough  (36  miles  in  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes), 
but  it  made  you  so  giddy  to  look  on  the  ground,  and  the  dust 
flew  so  disagreeably  in  your  eyes,  that  unless  one  slept  all  the 
way,  a  long  steam  journey  would  be  anything  but  pleasant.  In 
one  point,  however,  it  is  superior  to  every  other  kind  of  travel- 
ling— in  safety.  I  cannot  conceive  a  possible  accident  if  you 
only  sit  still ;  for  if  the  boiler  was  to  burst,  it  could  not  hurt 
those  in  the  inside  of  the  carriages.  I  believe  a  good  many  engi- 
neers are  killed,  and  this  certainly  seems  rather  dangerous.  I  had 
a  beautiful  passage,  and  was  not  at  all  sick — a  great  wonder  for 
me.  This  city  pleases  me.  I  think  it  is  as  handsome  as  any 
built  of  brick  can  be,  and  the  public  buildings  are  in  excellent 
taste.  It  is  now  quite  deserted,  as  the  few  people  I  have  seen 
tell  me.  The  Bishop  of  Kildare  asked  me  to  dinner  the  day 
I  arrived,  yesterday  ;  a  very  agreeable  party.  I  sat  by  a  Lady 
Campbell,  daughter  of  the  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  Madame 
de  Genlis'  "  Pamela,"  one  of  the  cleverest  creatures  I  ever  saw. 
Moore  has  just  published  her  father's  life,  and  I  began  talking 
of  it  without  knowing  who  she  was,  but  luckily  very  encomias- 
tically,  so  we  got  on  very  well.  ...  I  go  to-morrow  to 
Belfast,  where  a  Cambridge  friend  of  mine  of  the  name  of 
Warburton  has  been  waiting  some  time  for  me.  He  takes  me 
over  the  northern  lions,  and  then  after  paying  some  visits  to 
places  where  I  have  got  letters  to,  I  go  to  stay  quietly  with 
Trench  in  Queen's  County.  O'Brien  is  in  the  south  at  Sir 
E.  O'Brien's,  and  as  he  has  a  tutor  with  him  whom  I  do  not 
like  at  all,  and  a  friend  I  am  not  particularly  fond  of,  I  am  in  no 
hurry  to  join  him,  especially  as  Trench  offers  me  to  stay  quietly 
with  him  as  long  as  I  please.  ...  In  the  way  of  politics  I 


LONDON   AND    ITALY.  Ill 

have  nothing1  new,  except  that  everybody  says  that  now  that 
Prussia  has  declared  against  Poland  there  must  be  war,  and 
we  shall  be  dragged  in.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  people  are 
anxious  for  it,  and  will  bear  to  be  taxed  still  more  for  that  pur- 
pose though  for  no  other.  The  Duke  does  not  yet  give  up  all 
hope  of  thwarting  the  Bill  in  the  Commons,  and  nobody  now 
seems  to  imagine  it  can  pass  the  Lords,  the  pledged  majority 
against  it  being  fifty,  exclusive  of  the  bishops.  It  is  supposed 
that  Parliament  will  sit  till  the  Coronation,  and  then  adjourn 
only  for  a  month  or  six  weeks.  I  saw  a  letter  from  S.  Kildenbee, 
saying  that  they  never  left  the  House  except  to  get  a  little  sleep, 
and  now  that  they  have  begun  to  sit  on  Saturdays  the  imprison- 
ment must  be  intolerable.  .  .  .  Papa  tells  me  to  give  him 
some  account  of  the  debates  I  heard ;  what  can  I  tell  him  ?  That 
Lord  Althorp  was  dull,  Croker  clever,  Wetherell  coarse,  Hunt 
a  bore  ?  Or  am  I  to  say  at  once  what  everybody  says — that 
the  House  was  never  so  low  as  at  this  moment  ?  There  has 
been  some  good  speaking,  and  it  was  cheered,  but  nobody 
thought  any  more  about  it.  Indeed,  it  is  very  natural  that  the 
faintest  joke  should  be  a  more  grateful  relief  to  the  continual 
tedium  than  the  most  eloquent  ejaculation.  Everybody  is  dis- 
gusted with  the  insolent  injustice  which  the  Ministry  have  shown 
in  adhering  to  their  capricious  decision,  especially  in  Schedule  B, 
when  the  most  unanswerable  evidence  was  given  or  offered  to 
prove  them  in  the  wrong ;  and  except  as  leading  to  something 
else,  the  mass  of  the  people  care  very  little  about  the  Bill. 

Mr.  Milnes  senior  was  in  favour  of  Parliamentary 
Reform,  so  that  on  the  burning  political  question  of  the 
day  there  was  a  distinct  difference  of  opinion  between 
his  son  and  himself.  On  the  other  hand,  upon  questions 
of  foreign  affairs,  and,  above  all,  upon  the  subject  which 
was  so  closely  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  family  by 
their  stay  at  Milan — the  subjugation  of  Lombardy  to 
Austrian  rule — Milnes,  as  we  have  seen,  took  the  broad 


112  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

side  in  opposition  to  his  father,  who  upon  these  questions 
was  distinctly  conservative. 

Among  the  other  friends  whose  acquaintance  Milnes 
made  during  his  stay  in  Dublin  was  Sydney,  Lady 
Morgan,  author  of  "  The  Wild  Irish  Girl  "  and  other 
well-known  stories.  Lady  Morgan  seems  to  have  taken 
a  great  liking  to  him  from  the  first,  and  she  did  her  best 
to  make  him  at  home  in  the  literary  society  of  Dublin 
of  that  day. 

From  Dublin,  in  accordance  with  his  programme, 
Milnes  went  to  the  north,  and  joined  Eliot  Warburton 
for  a  tour  in  open  cars,  which  he  greatly  enjoyed.  His 
pleasure  was,  however,  marred,  as  that  of  so  many  other 
travellers  in  Ireland  has  been,  by  the  importunity  of  the 
beggars,  who  followed  him  everywhere. 

.ff.  M.  M.  to  his  Sister. 

Aiigust  \QtJi. 

The  Giant's  Causeway  is  very  marvellous,  and  would  have 
much  interested  me  if  I  could  have  had  one  quiet,  contemplative 
moment,  but  the  guides  stream  down  on  you  in  actual  shoals, 
and  torment  you  to  death  by  their  garrulity  and  importunity. 
As  it  is  a  wonder  of  nature  only  when  taken  collectively,  and 
requires  to  be  regarded  en  masse  and  as  a  whole,  you  will  under- 
stand how  the  interruption  of  even  a  human  form  must  be 
utterly  destructive  of  the  general  effect.  Think,  then,  of  a 
rabble  rout  of  sightseers,  with  the  eternal  prattle  and  hubbub 
of  picnic  parties,  hampered  with  veal  pies,  and  blind  ancient  men 
with  cracked  fiddles.  We  had  hoped  that  by  coming  by  water 
we  should  keep  the  cormorants  off,  but  I  was  forced  to  rush  back 
into  the  boat,  leaving  the  thing  half  unseen,  in  an  agony  of 
passion.  We  stayed  two  days  at  Glenarm  Castle,  the  famous 
Lady  Antrim's.  I  learned  very  much  from  her  husband 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  113 

of  Irish  affairs,  but  as  I  have  kid  it  down  as  a  rule  to 
believe  nothing  here  implicitly  but  my  own  eyes,  I  shall  not 
transcribe  any  of  it.  .  .  .  I  hear  there  is  a  letter  at  the 
post,  so  I  shall  stop  till  I  get  it,  as  it  may  be  from  you.  Well, 
here  is  papa's  letter,  and  I  have  to  direct  this  to  Napoli,  la  bella 
Napoli !  When  you  get  this  you  have  looked  at  Baise,  and  raised 
your  eyes  to  Vesuvius.  If  it  is  decided  that  you  are  not  to  stay 
at  Naples,  then  I  think  your  vagrant  plan  of  travelling  is  much 
the  best.  And  now,  while  you  are  enjoying  yourself,  will  you  do 
something  to  please  me  ?  Will  you  write  a  journal  and  send  it 
me,  but  upon  this  system — never  say  when  you  left  or  got  to  a 
place,  never  how  far  one  place  is  from  another,  never  any  date  or 
order,  but  merely  put  on  paper  the  impressions  of  new  and 
external  objects  ?  Now  besides  this,  read  "  Eustace "  very 
attentively,  and  get  papa  to  explain  to  you  all  the  classical  part 
of  it.  Have  you  also,  as  you  promised  me,  read  all  the  part  of 
the  "  Outline  of  History  "  that  Concerns  Rome  ?  But  first  of  all, 
take  Corinne  with  you,  and  get  "  Letters  from  Italy."  I 
fear  it  is  a  hopeless  task  to  make  papa  a  regular  sightseer,  but 
do  make  him  go  and  see  all  the  buildings;  this  is  by  far  more 
important  than  pictures  or  statues.  The  impression  of  the 
beautiful  in  a  building  connects  the  ideas  of  the  pleasure  and 
the  place  more  intimately  than  any  other  work  of  art,  which 
might  be  easily  transferred  into  another  country,  can  do. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  Milnes  in  his  Irish 
visit  further.  One  of  the  most  interesting  places  at 
which  he  stayed  was  the  Island  of  Valentia,  to  which 
he  had  received  a  kind  invitation  from  the  Knight  of 
Kerry ;  whilst  amongst  the  other  notable  persons  whose 
acquaintance  he  made  during  his  stay  in  Ireland  was 
Miss  Edgeworth. 

I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Aubrey  De  Yere  for  some 
reminiscences  of  Milnes  dating  as  far  back  as  this 
period,  and  although  they  necessarily  anticipate  the 


114  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

course  of  my  narrative,  it  may  be  well  to  insert  them 
here  : — 

My  first  acquaintance  with  my  old  friend  Houghton  [says 
Mr.  De  Vere]  was  so  characteristic  of  him  that  I  have  never 
forgotten  it.  It  was  in  1831,  and  we  were  reading-  aloud  the 
great  debate  on  the  Reform  Bill,  when,  about  9  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  a  postchaise  drove  up.  No  one  was  expected,  and  we 
went  out  on  the  terrace  to  see  who  the  new  arrival  could  be. 
A  young  man,  with  a  jaunty  step  and  very  vivacious  intelligent 
face,  walked  up  the  steps  and  asked  whether  my  eldest  brother, 
the  late  Sir  Vere  de  Vere,  was  in  the  house.  They  both  belonged 
to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  were  friends.  My  brother 
fortunately  was  with  us ;  they  were  delighted  to  meet,  and  in 
another  half -hour  we  seemed  to  have  leapt  into  an  intimacy  with 
the  young  traveller  as  close  as  if  it  had  begun  years  before,  so 
entirely  easy  and  familiar  was  our  guest  in  all  his  ways,  and  so 
singularly  unconventional  in  his  manners.  After  a  little  time 
my  father  told  him  that  we  had  been  engaged  on  the  debate 
which  at  that  time  absorbed  public  attention,  and  proposed  that 
we  should  resume  our  reading,  to  which  he  replied  that  nothing 
could  interest  him  more.  He  soon,  however,  had  had  enough 
of  the  speeches,  jumped  up,  lighted  a  bedchamber  candle,  and 
began  to  coast  round  and  round  the  room,  examining  the  books 
with  which  its  walls  were  lined.  Now  and  then  he  laughed 
as  a  flight  of  Parliamentary  rhetoric  reached  his  ears;  but  the 
books  excited  his  attention  far  more.  He  took  down  many  of 
them,  perused  their  title-pages  carefully,  turned  over  a  few  of 
their  leaves  hastily,  and  replaced  them.  Having  run  rapidly 
through  the  lower  shelves,  he  got  a  chair  and  subjected  the 
higher  to  the  same  rapid  inspection,  and  once  stood  at  a  con- 
siderable height  from  the  ground  with  the  candlestick  in  one 
hand  and  a  volume  in  the  other,  which  drew  from  him  louder 
laughter  than  he  had  bestowed  on  any  of  the  political  sallies. 
When  we  all  retired  for  the  night,  he  took  half  a  dozen 
volumes  to  his  room,  promising  not  to  read  them  in  bed  till 
daylight  returned.  The  next  morning,  at  breakfast,  a  question 


LONDON   AND   ITALY.  115 

arose  as  to  whether  a  particular  book  was  in  our  library  ;  no  one 
could  tell.  "Yes,  it  is,"  said  our  newly  arrived  guest,  "it  is  a 
small  volume  on  one  of  the  upper  shelves.  I  will  get  it  for 
you."  He  vanished,  and  soon  reappeared  with  the  book  in  his 
hand.  "  That  was  the  book  which  amused  me  so  much ;  do 
you  remember  it  ?  I  will  read  some  of  it  to  you ;  it  is  one  of 
the  cleverest  books  I  know."  He  then  read  us  passages  out  of 
Dean  Swift's  "  Advice  to  Servants,"  till  reminded  that,  though 
the  Dean's  wit  always  holds  its  own,  tea  sometimes  grows  cold. 

He  remained  with  us  a  good  many  days,  though  when  he 
left  us  they  seemed  too  few.  We  showed  him  whatever  of 
interest  our  neighbourhood  boasts,  and  he  more  than  repaid  us 
by  the  charm  of  his  conversation,  his  lively  descriptions  of  foreign 
ways,  his  good-humour,  his  manifold  accomplishments,  and  the 
extraordinary  range  of  his  information,  both  as  regards  books 
and  men.  He  could  hardly  have  then  been  more  than  two-and- 
twenty,  and  yet  he  was  already  well  acquainted  with  the 
languages  and  literatures  of  many  different  countries,  and  not  a 
few  of  their  most  distinguished  men,  living  or  recently  dead.  I 
well  remember  the  vivid  picture  which  he  drew  of  Niebuhr's 
profound  grief  at  the  downfall  of  the  restored  monarchy  in 
France  at  the  renewal  of  its  Revolution  in  1830.  He  was 
delivering  a  series  of  historical  lectures  at  the  time,  and  Milnes 
was  one  of  the  young  men  attending  the  course.  One  day  they 
had  long  to  wait  for  their  professor ;  at  last  the  aged  historian 
entered  the  lecture  hall,  his  form  drooping,  and  his  whole  aspect 
grief-stricken.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  I  have  no  apology  to 
make  for  detaining  you ;  a  calamity  has  befallen  Europe  which 
must  undo  all  the  restorative  work  recently  done,  and  throw  back 
her  social  and  political  progress — perhaps  for  centuries.  The 
Revolution  has  broken  out  again." 

Milnes  was  then  a  Tory,  though  our  cousin,  the  old  Knight  of 
Kerry,  himself  a  Tory,  and  whom  he  also  visited,  thought  he  must 
be  mistaken  when  he  professed  to  be  one.  At  a  later  time  another 
Tory  friend  said  to  him,  "  What  a  pity  that  you  began  with 
such  good  principles  !  If  you  had  but  begun  with  bad  ones,  you 


116  TEE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGRTON. 

would  have  got  tired  of  them,  and  gone  on  to  better."  In  1832 
he  was  opposed  to  the  Reform  Bill  of  that  year,  as  was  my  father, 
notwithstanding  that  he  had  also  regretted  as  calamitous  the 
long  delay  in  effecting  a  sound  Parliamentary  reform. 

Milnes  was  at  that  time  much  devoted  to  German  literature, 
and  in  sympathy  with  German  philosophy — at  least,  so  far  as 
it  stands  opposed  to  that  of  Locke  and  his  followers.  He  was 
ardent  in  his  admiration  for  both  the  Schlegels,  for  Tieck,  for 
Heine  and  Schiller,  but,  above  all,  for  Goethe,  whose  many- 
sidedness  delighted  him,  and  whose  minor  poems  he  pronounced 
to  be  the  perfection  of  art.  Art  was  what  he  then  seemed  most 
to  value  in  poetry,  not  reality  or  the  experience  of  life ;  the  poet, 
he  maintained,  often  wrote  best  when  he  felt  least.  Among  the 
French  poets,  he  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of  Victor  Hugo ;  but  I 
have  little  doubt  that  his  own  mind,  like  that  of  Carlyle,  was 
more  deeply  influenced  by  the  writings  of  Goethe  than  by  those  of 
any  other  poet.  He  would  not  have  agreed  with  the  man  who  said 
Goethe  was  "  at  once  an  idolater  and  an  unbeliever,  for  he  wor- 
shipped himself,  and  yet  he  was  too  shrewd  to  believe  in  himself/' 

Milnes  left  behind  with  us  a  multitude  of  pleasant  recol- 
lections, not  only  connected  with  his  original  conversation  and 
amusing  ways,  but  with  many  books  which  he  was  fond  of  quoting, 
and  most  of  which  we  sent  for  on  his  recommendation.  One 
of  these  was  "  Guesses  at  Truth/'  by  Julius  and  Francis  Hare,  a 
work  full  of  fine  thoughts  and  happy  suggestions,  and  one 
written  in  a  spirit  both  scholarly  and  elevated.  Through  him 
we  became  well  acquainted  with  the  refined  and  classical  poetry 
of  Landor,  and  with  those  imaginary  conversations  which  take, 
perhaps,  the  highest  rank  in  prose  poetry,  characterised,  as  they 
are,  by  a  style  at  once  so  masterly  and  so  various,  by  thoughts 
so  deep,  and  by  an  eloquence  so  manly  and  so  true.  Through 
Milnes  also  we  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  Shelley  and 
Keats,  the  latter  of  whom  had  previously  been  unknown  to  us, 
while  the  former  was  known  only  through  a  volume  of  selections; 
and  I  became  familiar  with  those  noble  works  by  Kenelm 
Digby,  "  The  Broad  Stone  of  Honour  "  and  "  Mores  Catholici/' 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  117 

in  which  what  was  best  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  so  vividly 
mirrored,  and  to  which  I  have  ever  felt  myself  much  indebted 
for  the  light  which  they  cast  on  religious  history  and  philosophy. 

We  had  previously  seen  nothing  of  Alfred  Tennyson's  poetry, 
though  we  had  often  heard  him  spoken  of  by  my  eldest  brother, 
who  was  one  of  his  Cambridge  friends;  but  Milnes's  portmanteau, 
amongst  the  many  books  with  which  it  was  crammed,  had  found 
room  for  a  slender  periodical — called,  I  think,  The  Englishman — 
containing  Arthur  Hallam's  fearlessly  appreciative  critique  on 
the  first  volume  that  bore  on  its  title-page  a  name  destined  to 
become  so  widely  known  and  gratefully  honoured.  We  were 
soon  on  very  intimate  terms  with  Oriana,  Mariana,  Haroun 
al  Raschid,  the  Persian  Girl,  and  much  good  company  besides, 
who  for  years  afterwards  accompanied  us  in  our  boatings  and 
woodland  rambles.  That  magazine  included  an  exquisite  sonnet 
of  Tennyson's,  not  now  accessible,  beginning  "  Check  every 
outbreak,"  and  among  his  other  poems  recited  to  us  by  Milnes 
was  a  grand  sonnet  on  Cambridge,  which,  from  its  theme, 
challenges  yet  greater  interest  in  the  present  day  than  when  it 
was  written.  We  asked  in  vain  for  a  copy  of  it;  my  sister  took 
up  her  pen,  and,  screened  by  a  pile  of  books,  wrote  out  the 
whole  of  it  from  memory  with  perfect  correctness.  Quite 
recently  that  copy  was  found  and  sent  to  me.  Milnes  used  to 
speak  with  a  special  affection  of  his  sister,  but  in  his  own  quaint 
way,  "  I  don't  resent  her  being  beautiful  when  I  am  plain,  but 
it  is  really  too  bad  that  she  should  also  be  taller  than  I  am." 

I  don't  affect  to  draw  a  complete  portrait  of  an  early  and 
always  faithful  friend;  I  don't  go  beyond  detached  impressions. 
What,  as  I  always  thought,  had  the  strongest  hold  on  Houghton 
was  poetry,  and  especially  that  gleam  which  it  throws  on  the 
grace  and  gladness  of  youth ;  the  inevitable  departure  of  youth 
was,  I  think,  felt  by  him  to  be  the  one  great  woe  of  humanity. 
He  sang  its  dirge  in  an  early  poem,  "  The  Flight  of  Youth." 

The  highlands  of  life  were  not  what  interested  him  much ;  its 
mountains  cast  their  shadows  too  far,  and  drew  down  too  many 
clouds ;  he  was  better  pleased  to 


118  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

Recognise  that  idyll  scene 
Where  all  mild  creatures  without  awe 
Amid  field  flowers  and  pastures  green 
Fulfilled  their  being's  gentle  law. 

He  had  not,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  much  of  solid  ambition,  nor 
did  he  value  social  distinction  as  much  as  intellectual  excitement 
and  ceaseless  novelty.  He  played  with  the  world,  even  after  the 
plaything  had  become  a  tiresome  one;  but  he  was  never  seriously 
a  man  of  the  world.  His  affections  were  much  stronger  than 
they  were  supposed  to  be,  especially  those  connected  with 
domestic  ties  or  with  early  recollections  ;  he  never  forgot  an  old 
friend,  and  was  always  anxious  to  be  of  practical  help  to  those 
who  stood  in  need  of  aid,  or  who  were  unjustly  assailed.  It  was 
thus  that  when  Augustus  Stafford,  though  a  man  singularly  and 
deservedly  popular,  found  himself  for  a  time  severely  assailed  in 
connection  with  some  alleged  interference  with  votes  on  the  part 
of  officials  in  the  Admiralty,  his  old  friend  was  at  once  at  his 
side,  the  stoutest  to  fight  his  cause,  when  some  of  his  own 
political  party  looked  coldly  upon  him. 

Milnes  told  me  in  his  later  life  that  in  his  earlier  days  he 
would  almost  certainly  have  become  a  Catholic  but  for  the 
sudden  uprising  of  a  Catholic  school  in  the  Church  of  England. 
But  I  should  have  thought  it  more  likely  that  his  feelings 
on  this  subject  had  been  those  expressed  in  a  profoundly  touching 
poem,  written  at  Rome  in  1834,  beginning  "  To  search  for  lore 
in  spacious  libraries."  * 

*  The  following  is  the  closing  stanza  of  the  poem  to  which  Mr.  De 
Vere  refers : — 

"  Thou  to  whom  the  wearisome  disease 
Of  past  and  present  is  an  alien  thing, 
Thou  pure  existence,  whose  severe  decrees 
Forbid  a  living  man  his  soul  to  bring 
Into  a  timeless  Eden  of  sweet  ease, 
Clear-eyed,  clear-hearted — lay  Thy  loving  wing 
In  death  upon  me,  if  that  way  alone 
Thy  great  Creation-thought  Thou  wilt  to  me  make  known." 


LONDON   AND    ITALY.  119 

Houghton  was,  I  think,  a  man  wholly  without  resentments 
and  free  from  all  touch  of  envy  or  jealousy,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  had  an  ardent  faculty  of  admiration.  His  wit  had  no 
sting  in  it ;  it  hurt  nobody,  and  he  was  not  easily  hurt  himself. 
He  had  a  great  relish  for  amusement,  and  a  benevolent  desire  to 
amuse  others,  not  much  caring  whether  the  laugh  which  his  jest 
had  raised  went  with  him  or  was  at  his  own  expense.  When 
he  was  still  a  young  man,  the  Queen  gave  a  masked  ball  at 
Buckingham  Palace,  and  he  had,  as  was  said,  expressed  his  in- 
tention of  going  to  it  in  the  character  of  old  Chaucer.  Words- 
worth, as  Poet  Laureate,  had  received  an  invitation  to  it,  though 
not  wholly  pleased  at  having  to  begin  his  attendance  on  such 
revels  at  seventy-five  years  of  age.  The  patriarch  of  English 
poetry,  when  told  of  the  young  poet's  intention,  exclaimed,  "  If 
Richard  Milnes  goes  to  the  Queen's  ball  in  the  character  of 
Chaucer,  it  only  remains  for  me  to  go  to  it  in  that  of  Richard 
Milnes/'  If  the  repartee  reached  the  ears  of  Milnes,  no  one,  I 
am  sure,  enjoyed  it  more  or  repeated  it  oftener. 

Some  time  or  other  the  world  will  discover,  with  much 
pleasure  and  surprise,  what  a  true  poet  there  lived  in  a  man 
whom  it  regarded  chiefly  as  a  pleasant  companion  with  odd  ways 
and  manifold  accomplishments.  It  did  him  injustice  in  this 
respect ;  he  would  have  been  more  known  as  a  poet  if  he  had 
always  lived  in  a  cell  under  the  old  oaks  of  Fryston.  Men 
fancied  that  one  so  amusing  could  have  no  right  to  possess  the 
poetic  gift  in  addition,  and  many  did  not  take  the  trouble  to 
ascertain  whether  he  actually  possessed  it  or  not.  His  poetry 
did  not  assert  itself ;  it  had  a  modesty  about  it  which  the  poet 
himself  did  not  claim.  It  shunned  the  sensational,  and  the 
refinement  which  so  marks  it  presented  probably  the  greatest 
obstacle  to  its  popularity.  Though  rich  in  fancy,  it  is  grave- 
hearted,  and  in  an  unusual  degree  thoughtful ;  it  is  full  of 
pathos,  and  that  pathos  often  rests  gently,  like  Wordsworth's 
"lenient  cloud,"  on  scenes  and  incidents  not  only  of  modern 
but  of  conventional  life.  A  more  ample  appreciation  will  one 
day  be  given  to  such  poems  as  "  When  lying  upon  the  scales  of 


120  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

fate/'  "  The  words  that  tremble  on  your  lips,"  "  She  had  left  all 
on  earth  for  him/'  "  I  had  a  home/'  "  Beneath  an  Indian  palm 
a  girl/'  in  which  so  much  of  tender  feeling  is  united  with 
exquisite  grace  of  expression  ;  though  it  is  probable  that 
Houghton's  earlier  friends,  of  whom  he  probably  lost  none, 
except  through  death,  will,  from  old  associations,  recur  more 
often  to  the  poems  of  his  youth,  such  as  he  read  to  us  in  this 
house.  Among  the  best  of  them  were  those  entitled  "  Rapture," 
"  Shadows,"  "  All  fair  things  have  soft  approaches,"  "  My 
Youthful  Letters,"  and  "  The  Men  of  Old." 
Curragh  Chase,  Nov.  4,  1889. 

As  I  have  said,  Mr.  de  Vere's  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  his  friend  anticipates  the  course  of  this  biography, 
but  his  estimate  of  a  complex  character  too  little  under- 
stood will  be  of  service  to  the  reader  as  he  follows  my 
narrative.  Mr.  de  Vere's  description  of  Milnes  is  full 
of  the  regretful  tenderness  of  friendship,  but  it  is  not 
the  less  accurate  on  that  account,  and  it  presents  a  vivid 
picture  of  the  brilliant  youth  of  the  man  of  whom  he 
speaks. 

Writing  to  his  mother,  October  12th,  in  anticipation 
of  his  rejoining  his  family  in  Italy,  he  says — 

I  shall  really  be  very  glad  to  get  to  my  books,  having  seen 
enough  of  people  and  spent  enough  of  money  this  summer  for  a 
year  at  least.  However,  I  have  seen  more  of  Ireland  and 
Irishmen,  I  think,  than  most  would  have  done  in  the  same 
time ;  and  so  leave  it  with  a  most  vivid  impression  of  its  beauty, 
artfulness,  and  power,  and  as  gloomy  anticipations  of  its  destiny. 
.  .  .  You  can  have  no  idea  of  the  immense  gulf  in  society 
that  separates  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  gentry.  I  think  this 
is  the  first  Catholic  family  I  have  been  in  [the  Knight  of 
Kerry's] ,  and  Lady  K.  is  a  Protestant. 


LONDON   AND    ITALY.  121 

After  spending  a  few  weeks  in  town,  Milnes  started 
for  Italy  to  join  his  family  at  Rome,  where  they  were 
now  residing.  Letters  already  given  show  that  he  felt 
a  certain  degree  of  reluctance  as  to  visiting  Rome.  It 
seemed  as  though  he  regarded  the  Eternal  City  as 
being  something  too  formidable  and  too  sacred  to  be 
lightly  approached.  He  had  warned  his  sister  of  the 
necessity  of  making  full  literary  preparation  before  she 
entered  it,  and  this  necessity  weighed  still  more  heavily 
upon  himself.  His  wish  had  been  that  his  father 
should  remain  at  Naples  for  the  winter — for  Naples 
had  undoubtedly  greater  attractions  for  the  young  man 
than  Rome  itself — but  this  wish  was  not  gratified,  and 
in  December  he  started  from  London  for  Rome  by  way 
of  Paris  and  Marseilles.  Before  leaving  London  he 
had  seen  a  good  deal  of  the  poet  Thomas  Campbell, 
who  had  long  been  an  acquaintance  of  his  father's ;  and 
it  is  interesting  to  observe,  as  one  of  the  links  "  which 
knit  the  generations  each  with  each/'  that  Campbell 
was  indebted  at  this  time  to  Milnes  for  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction to  Tennyson. 

R.  H.  M.  to  his  (jrrandmotker* 

Rome,  January  14^,  1832. 

DEAREST  GRANDMAMA, — I  find  to  my  horror  that  a  short 
letter  written  to  you  directly  after  my  setting  foot  in  the 
Eternal  City  has,  by  some  domestic  forgetfulness,  been  re- 
posing in  the  blotting-book  instead  of  passing  the  Alps.  It 
was  merely  to  announce  my  arrival,  so  I  prefer  writing  you 
rather  a  longer  one,  though  the  post  is  going  out  in  a  quarter  of 

*  Mrs.  R.  S.  Milnes. 


122  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

an  hour.  I  cannot  say  I  am  quite  well,  but  am  still  suffering 
something  from  the  long  shaking  of  my  journey.  The  voyage 
after  Genoa  was  still  worse,  and  I  think  I  caught  a  little  touch 
of  malaria  in  coming  over  the  marsnes  at  night  from  Civita 
Vecchia.  The  doctor  here  tells  me  that  I  shall  not  be  quite 
well  for  eight  or  ten  days,  and  must  live  very  low  while  I 
remain  at  Rome.  You  may  suppose  that  thus  I  have  as  yet 
seen  very  little — just  run  over  a  few  things.  St.  Peter's  nearly 
knocked  me  down,  the  Vatican  blinded  me  with  its  multitude 
of  treasures,  and  the  Coliseum  has  a  glory  of  ruin  which  must 
be  grander  than  its  first  perfection.  My  father,  on  the  con- 
trary, seems  much  disappointed  at  not  finding  more  of  old 
Rome,  and  is  content  with  nothing  but  the  aqueducts,  which  he 
thinks  stupendous.  He  speaks  with  the  most  shocking  dis- 
respect of  the  Forum,  and  with  absolute  contempt  of  half  the 
temples,  and  declares  that  everybody  else  would  do  the  same  if 
they  dared.  The  weather  out  of  doors  is  most  delicious,  but 
notwithstanding  the  roses  and  oranges,  it  is  nearly  as  cold  in 
the  house  as  in  England,  and  I  am  very  profligate  of  wood, 
though  a  full  sun  is  shining  from  a  cloudless  sky.  There  was  a 
slight  shock  of  earthquake  felt  here  yesterday,  but  we  are  too 
high  to  feel  it.  You  may  suppose  I  think  myself  very  lucky 
that  Mr.  Spencer  is  to  preach  to-morrow  for  the  first  time. 
There  is  great  interest  excited  about  it.  I  found  my  father 
pretty  well,  but  evidently  not  quite  recovered  from  a  violent 
attack  of  illness  he  had  at  Naples ;  Harriette  not  looking  very 
well ;  and  my  mother  much  the  same  as  usual. 

The  stay  of  Milnes  in  Borne  during  this  winter  was 
memorable  in  his  life,  because  of  the  friendships  which 
he  was  enabled  to  form  among  the  English  residents  in 
the  city.  Cardinal  Weld  was  at  that  time  at  the  head 
of  the  British  Catholics  in  Rome.  He  was,  as  we 
are  told  in  the  "  Monographs,"  "  an  English  country 
gentleman  of  the  simplest  manners,  whose  delight  it 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  123 

was  to  show  hospitality  to  his  fellow-countrymen  who 
visited  Kome."  Cardinal  Weld  had  long  known  Mr. 
Milnes  senior,  and  when  Richard  arrived  in  Rome  he 
lost  no  time  in  doing  all  in  his  power  to  make  the 
young  man's  stay  there  agreeable  to  him.  One  of  the 
first  persons  to  whom  he  gave  him  an  introduction  was 
Dr.  Wiseman,  subsequently  the  famous  Catholic  Arch- 
bishop of  Westminster.  With  Wiseman  Milnes  formed 
a  warm  and  lasting  friendship.  Wiseman  was  then 
at  the  head  of  the  English  College,  and  among  the 
students  under  his  care  was  a  young  relative  of  his  own, 
Charles  MacCarthy,  to  whom  also  Milnes  was  strongly 
attracted,  and  with  whom  he  formed  one  of  the  great 
friendships  of  his  life. 

MacCarthy  was  at  that  time  preparing  to  take 
orders  in  the  Catholic  priesthood.  He  was,  however, 
one  of  those  young  members  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
who  fell  under  the  influence  of  the  Abbe  de  Lamennais, 
and  he  was  also  an  early  friend  of  Count  de  Montalem- 
bert,  subsequently  famous  in  French  history.  The  in- 
fluence of  De  Lamennais  was  great  over  MacCarthy, 
and  it  led,  in  the  end,  to  his  withdrawal  from  his  theo- 
logical studies.  Milnes,  who  took  the  deepest  interest 
in  MacCarthy,  urged  Dr.  Wiseman  to  acquiesce  in  his 
change  of  professions  and,  when  the  latter  did  so,  'he 
exerted  himself  to  procure  for  MacCarthy  a  place  in  the 
public  service.  Thanks  to  Milnes  and  his  friends, 
MacCarthy  obtained  an  appointment  under  the  Colonial 
Office.  In  his  new  career  he  attained  distinction,  and 
became  eventually  Governor  of  Ceylon. 


124  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Dr.  Cullen  was  also  then  resident  in  Rome,  as 
rector  of  the  Irish  college;  as  was  Bishop  McHale, 
who  later  became  Archbishop  of  Tuam.  With  Dr. 
McHale  Milnes  travelled  in  Italy  for  some  time.  Thus 
he  had  exceptional  opportunities  during  this  winter 
for  making  the  acquaintance  of  men  of  ability  and 
distinction,  and,  as  usual,  he  did  not  fail  to  make  the 
best  of  these  opportunities.  Through  M.  Bio,  "the 
graceful  and  pious  historian  of  Christian  art,"  he 
became  acquainted  with  Montalembert  and  Lamennais, 
as  well  as  with  many  other  members  of  the  French  colony 
in  Rome.  The  distinguished  family  of  the  Chevalier 
Bunsen  were  then  in  Rome,  and  with  them  he  at  once 
became  on  friendly  terms.  The  friendship  was  main- 
tained throughout  his  life.  It  followed  that  the 
months  he  spent  in  the  city,  in  the  beginning  of  1832, 
were  full  of  intellectual  enjoyment  and  activity,  and 
bore  fruit  in  friendships  which  distinctly  influenced  his 
later  years. 

His  desire  to  see  Naples  was  not  diminished,  how- 
ever, even  by  the  attractions  of  Rome,  and  in  May,  when 
the  family  returned  to  their  permanent  quarters  in 
Milan,  he  went  southwards  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  Naples  and  Pompeii.  Rio  and  Montalembert 
were  his  companions  on  the  journey,  and  with  them  he 
saw  much  of  the  social  life  of  the  place,  climbed 
Vesuvius  whilst  it  was  in  a  state  of  eruption,  walked 
the  streets  of  Pompeii,  finding  them  to  be  "  much  what 
he  had  expected,  though  of  greater  extent,"  and  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Count  Platen,  the  German  poet. 


LONDON   AND    ITALY.  125 

His  college  friend,  Christopher  Wordsworth,  came  to 
Naples  whilst  he  was  there,  and  the  two  young 
men  discussed  a  project  of  which  both  had  long 
been  thinking.  This  was  a  tour  in  Greece,  at  that 
time  a  much  more  formidable  enterprise  than  it  is  at 
present.  Wordsworth  was  determined  to  go,  and  Milnes 
resolved  to  accompany  him,  provided  his  father  would 
give  his  consent.  On  leaving  Naples  he  returned  to 
Borne,  whence  he  addressed  his  father  on  the  subject. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Rome,  June  21st,  1832. 

I  left  the  city  of  clamour  four  days  ago,  and  am  just  arrived 
in  this  great  cloister.  The  contrast  is  immensely  imposing ;  you 
seem  to  have  left  a  living  city  for  the  ghost  of  one.  The  Monte 
Casino  road,  by  which  I  came,  is  a  good  deal  of  it  very  interesting, 
and  is  in  every  respect  preferable  to  the  other. 

The  convent  of  Monte  Casino  rather  disappointed  me,  and  the 
gratitude  I  felt  for  the  sumptuous  dinner  I  got  hardly  over- 
powered my  anger  at  the  practical  perjury  of  the  poverty-swearing 
monks.  I  never  saw  anything  comparable  to  the  fertility  of  the 
valley  on  entering  these  States,  but  the  mountains  are  generally 
bleak  and  dull.  Caserte  I  thought  a  bad  imitation  of  Versailles, 
and  not  worth  the  detour.  I  am  here,  in  the  V.  Belsiana,  with 
Wordsworth,  who  goes  to  Greece  early  in  July.  Now  I  daresay 
you  have  anticipated  the  very  natural  desire  I  have  of  accom- 
panying him,  as  so  many  advantages  both  of  pleasure  and 
instruction  would  be  united  to  my  anxiety  to  see  that  country. 
The  party,  besides  him,  are  Gray,  son  of  the  Bishop  of  Bristol, 
and  two  German  literati,  so  that,  in  fact,  I  should  be  learning  every 
step  I  took.  But,  my  dear  father,  notwithstanding  the  general 
disf  ranchisement  of  the  rights  of  paternity  throughout  the  world, 
I  recognise  yours  far  too  well,  and  not  only  yours  but  those  of  my 


126  THE  LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

mother  and  Harriette,  to  adopt  a  plan,  however  pregnant  with 
delight,  which  would  separate  me  from  you  all  for  three  or  four 
months  and  put  you  to  some  little  expense  you  can  so  ill 
afford,  without  not  only  the  consent,  but  the  full  approval  of  all 
of  you  individually.  The  money  part  is  perhaps  the  least 
important,  as  the  expense  cannot  exceed  £150  at  the  very  most, 
and  Wordsworth  expects  to  do  it  for  half  that  sum,  especially  as 
those  Germans  share  the  poverty  as  well  as  the  huge  learning  of 
their  class.  But  whether  you  will  consent  to  give  up  any 
projects  you  had  for  my  employment  this  autumn,  and  whether 
my  mother  or  Harriette,  of  whom  I  feel  so  strongly  that  I  am 
bound  by  every  sacred  duty  to  be  the  sole  companion,  will 
approve  of  my  absence,  is  another  question.  Write  me  word  by 
return  of  post  everything  you  wish,  and  I  hope  I  shall  be  able 
to  make  the  sacrifice  cheerfully  if  required.  I  like  Wordsworth 
better  every  day.  He  is  "by  himself  alone;,"  I  have  never 
seen  anybody  like  him.  You  said  something  in  one  of  your 
last  about  my  standing  for  Pontefract,  if  you  had  the  money. 
Even  were  that  the  case,  I  hardly  think  you  could  wish  me  to 
come  forward  this  next  dissolution.  Independently  of  the  im- 
probability of  success  to  a  candidate  avowing,  as  I  should  feel  it 
my  first  duty  to  do,  my  earnest  belief  that  the  Bill  is  the  curse  and 
degradation  of  the  nation,  and  that  every  effort  of  mine  would 
be  exerted  to  neutralise  its  effects  (for  even  the  base  Pontefract 
electors  must  now  be  roused  to  some  political  thought),  what 
possible  good  to  myself  or  others  could  I  effect  in  the  factious 
and  heterogeneous  assembly  which  will  soon  be  got  together  ? 
What  could  my  boyhood  do  against  the  passion  of  the  nation,  even 
were  it  tenfold  what  it  is,  but  meet  with  repulse  and  scorn  ? 

His  father  was  not  insensible  to  the  appeal  addressed 
to  him,  and  gave  his  free  consent  to  his  visit  to  Greece. 

The  party  [he  wrote  to  his  father,  acknowledging  this 
consent]  consists  of  Wordsworth,  his  friend  Robertson,  the  two 
Germans,  and  two  English  persons  I  just  know  to  speak  to. 


LONDON  AND    ITALY.  127 

We  leave  Rome  the  day  after  to-morrow,  and  hope  to  be  at  Corfu 
in  a  fortnight.  ...  I  have  spent  two  happy  days  with 
Bunsen,  and  one  with  the  Cheneys  at  Frascati ;  the  latter  I  did  not 
like  much  at  Rome,  but  they  have  something  to  balance  their 
fine-gentlemanism.  ...  I  breakfasted  with  Monsignor 
Spada  the  other  day.  He  was  very  civil.  I  think  he  has  not 
yet  finished  Harriette's  drawing ;  nor  has  Severne  done  his  duty, 
but  he  has  been  so  busy  with  Mrs.  Severne,  who  has  given  him 
another  daughter,  that  he  ought  to  be  excused ;  besides,  he 
expects  to  be  at  Milan  in  six  weeks,  and  will  bring  her  a  picture 
of  Keats.  Weld  gave  me  a  dinner  to  meet  Mezzofanti,  whom  I 
got  on  with  charmingly.  I  found  him  very  neatly  read,  but 
perhaps  only  conversationally.  The  Cardinal  has  done  a  beauti- 
ful drawing  for  mamma.  He  says,  "  It  is  not  much,  but  he  does 
not  think  she  will  find  another  Cardinal  to  do  it  better,  or, 
perhaps,  as  well/'  I  shall  send  it,  with  some  autographs  for 
Harriette,  by  somebody  who  is  going  straight  to  Milan.  Tell 
my  mother  I  will  pay  all  attention  to  her  little-great  advice,  and 
have  got  all  the  medicines  she  recommended,  castor-oil  and 
quinine  into  the  bargain.  The  latter  is  the  great  thing.  The 
new  Cardinals'  names  are  all  over  the  town,  surrounded  with  bay. 
There  was  a  talk  of  making  Wiseman  one,  but  the  Italians 
objected. 


CHAPTEK   IV. 

GREECE       AND       POETRY. 

Tour  in  Greece  with  Wordsworth — Winter  in  Venice — Family  Affairs — Illness 
at  Florence — Walter  Savage  Landor — Death  of  Arthur  Hallam — Letter 
from  Alfred  Tennyson— Publication  of  First  Book — A  Carnival  in  Rome — 
Return  of  the  Family  to  England — Wiseman — Connop  Thirlwall. 

THE  tour  in  Greece  which  Milnes  took  between  July 
and  November,  1832,  has  found  its  record  in  his  first 
independent  literary  venture,  the  volume  of  "  Memorials, 
chiefly  Poetical,"  in  which  the  young  man  described  his 
impressions  on  visiting  scenes,  the  interest  of  which  to 
the  cultivated  mind  can  never  fail.  It  is  not  necessary 
in  this  story  of  his  life  to  follow  him  throughout  his 
tour.  Travelling  in  Greece  in  the  year  1832  was 
hardly  a  holiday  enterprise,  and  Milnes  and  his  com- 
panion, Wordsworth,  had  to  rough  it  frequently,  and 
for  many  weeks  at  a  stretch,  during  the  course  of  their 
journey.  The  unsettled  state  of  the  country,  and  the 
hardships  through  which  the  travellers  passed,  will, 
however,  be  gathered  from  one  or  two  of  the  letters 
addressed  by  Milnes  to  members  of  his  family  whilst  he 
was  in  Greece. 

The  party  set  out  on  July  7th,  travelled  by  way  of 
Naples  and  Otranto  to  Corfu,  thence  to  Zante,  Arta, 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  129 

Larissa,  Pharsala,  and  Thermopylae,  and  then  to  Athens, 
which  place  they  reached  on  October  13th.  After 
spending  a  week  there,  Milnes  returned  by  Ithaca  to 
Corfu,  and,  landing  at  Ancona,  spent  fourteen  days  in 
the  lazaretto,  Venice  being  reached  at  the  close  of  the 
tour,  on  December  21st. 

It.  M.  M.  to  Miss  Caroline  Milnes. 

Zante,  August  Z5th,  1832. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  CAROLINE, — When  I  set  off  from  Italy,  I 
expected  by  this  time  to  liave  been  able  at  last  to  send  you  an 
Athenian  letter,  but  my  party  has  been  detained  in  these  pleasant 
Ionian  Islands  so  long,  for  agreeable  and  disagreeable  reasons,  that 
we  are  hardly  yet  set  out  fairly  on  our  tour.  This  delay,  how- 
ever, has  had  its  advantages,  for  had  we  set  out  earlier  from  the 
Continent,  we  should  have  arrived  in  Greece  at  the  most  un- 
healthy part  of  the  year,  and  very  probably  instead  of  writing  to 
you  I  might  be  sharing  the  grave  of  Leonidas  or  Epaminondas. 
The  political  state  of  the  Morea  is  at  this  moment  the  most 
terrible.  I  have  the  hills  of  its  coast  in  clear  view  from  the 
window  where  I  am  writing,  but  I  suppose  you  might  as  well 
put  a  pistol  to  your  head  as  attempt  to  walk  five  miles  into  the 
country.  The  whole  is  in  the  hands  of  certain  predatory  chief- 
tains, who  have  armed  the  population  for  their  own  purposes;  and 
now  these  peasant  armies,  after  having  done  nothing  since  Capo 
d'Istria's  death  but  rob  and  murder  one  another,  are  driven  by 
actual  starvation  to  every  possible  mode  of  pillage  and  outrage. 
When  we  were  at  Ithaca  last  week,  above  300  people  of  the 
better  class  at  Missolonghi  arrived  with  the  property  they  had 
saved,  the  town  having  been  sacked  two  nights  before  by  one  of 
these  chieftains  whom  the  municipality  had  offended;  and  an 
officer,  not  many  days  since,  was  robbed  of  everything  by  the 
Coastguard  of  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto,  who  said  their  own  Govern- 
ment had  paid  them  nothing  for  nine  months,  and  they  must 


130  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

live.  ...  In  the  meantime,  nothing  is  left  for  us  but  to  go 
hence  straight  by  sea  to  Athens,  or  to  come  down  upon  it  through 
the  happy  and  secure  provinces  which  rest  under  the  paternal 
authority  of  the  Turks.  This  will,  I  think,  be  our  course, 
for  we  shall  not  only  see  something  of  Mohammedanism  and  its 
influences  in  perfect  security  and  with  every  advantage  (for 
General  Woodford,  of  Corfu,  lias  given  us  letters  and  diplomas 
in  abundance),  but  we  shall  take  Tempe,  Thermopylae,  and 
Thebes,  in  our  way,  three  as  interesting  places  as  can  well  begin 
with  the  same  letter.  The  pleasure  I  have  derived  from  our 
tour  in  these  Islands  has  been  so  much  greater  as  it  was  quite 
unanticipated.  It  may  be  that  most  of  our  military  men  are  so 
plagued  by  a  long  confinement  in  these  countries,  but  they 
certainly  never  speak  of  them  in  a  way  to  prepare  us  for  anything 
like  what  we  find.  The  first  effect  of  Corfu  is  quite  marvellous. 
I  came  upon  the  town  after  a  beautiful  ride  across  the  country 
from  the  opposite  shore  on  the  evening  of  a  festa.  The 
Englishism  and  the  Orientalism  would  under  the  circumstances 
have  been  each  of  them  striking,  but  both  of  them  combined  were 
astonishing.  The  old  red  coat  and  the  new  Albanian  costume, 
the  old  English  and  new  Greek  faces,  the  familiar  language 
clashing  with  one  never  heard  before,  were  all  wonders;  and 
above  all,  a  scenery  for  splendour  of  colouring  and  sublimity  of 
outline  perhaps  unsurpassed  in  the  world.  What  took  me 
principally  was  its  complete  difference  from  Italian  scenery ;  you 
felt  you  were  going  to  distant  places  "nearer  to  the  sun."  A 
whole  fortnight  has  been  spent,  half  of  it  at  least  in  being  be- 
calmed or  detained  by  contrary  winds,  between  Corfu  and  this 
pretty  place,  called  from  time  immemorial  the  Flower  of  the 
Levant.  I  could,  howerer,  have  well  stayed  something  longer  at 
Ithaca,  after  having  examined  which  Homer's  Odyssey  is  a 
different  book  to  you  from  what  it  can  have  been  before.  I  hope, 
indeed,  by  the  means  of  this  town  to  revive  to  something  of 
a  more  vigorous  life  the  classical  pursuits  I  have  lately  much 
neglected,  and  not  to  lose  utterly  the  fruits  of  a  very  painful 
boyhood. 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  131 

The  party  had  the  usual  experiences  of  travellers 
who  are  thrown  together  without  much  previous  know- 
ledge of  each  other,  and  in  a  letter  of  the  same  date  as 
the  foregoing,  Milnes  congratulates  himself  upon  the 
fact  that  by  getting  rid  of  one  of  their  German  com- 
panions, who  had  made  himself  immensely  disagreeable, 
the  pleasure  of  himself  and  the  rest  of  the  little  com- 
pany had  been  greatly  enhanced.  One  result  of  his 
wanderings  through  that  part  of  Greece  which  was  then 
in  the  hands  of  Turkey,  was  to  inspire  Milnes  with  an 
affection  for  the  Turkish  character  which  he  never 
entirely  lost,  and  which  enabled  him  in  very  different 
days,  then  far  distant,  to  understand  the  political 
exigencies  of  the  East  better  than  many  politicians  of 
more  pretentious  character  and  fame.  Certainly  in 
those  days  that  part  of  Greece  where  Turkish  rule  pre- 
vailed presented  a  pleasant  contrast  to  the  provinces 
which  were  independent  of  the  rule  of  the  Pashas. 
Yet  the  reader  must  not  suppose  that  this  sympathy 
with  the  Mussulman  character  prevented  Milnes  from 
sharing  to  the  fullest  extent  in  the  aspirations  of  the 
Greeks  after  national  life  and  freedom.  In  those 
troubled  days  of  Greek  independence  during  which 
he  first  became  acquainted  with  the  country  itself, 
whatever  might  be  his  tolerant  regard  for  the  Turk, 
his  appreciation  of  his  undoubted  virtues  and  his 
leniency  towards  his  faults,  he  never  wavered  in  his 
attachment  to  the  side  of  freedom  and  of  Christianity. 


132  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Miss  Jane  Milnes. 

Athens,  Oct.  10,  1832. 

MY  DEAREST  JANE, — I  don't  know  when  I  have  written  to 
you,  it  is  so  long  ago.  In  beginning  a  letter  to  you,  this  great 
place  and  all  its  associations  goes  away,  and  I  am  what  and 
where  I  was  when  I  passed  many  a  long  night  in  writing  what 
was  nonsense  to  you  but  happiness  to  me,  and  I  am  obliged  to 
look  very  hard  at  the  great  temple  of  the  Parthenon  with  its 
huge  broken  portico  up  there  on  the  citadel,  and  to  think  that  I 
have  been  six  weeks  without  a  bed  to  sleep  in  or  a  table  to 
dine  upon,  before  I  can  bring  myself  back  to  things  as  they  are, 
and  believe  that  I  am  about  to  despatch  to  you  an  Athenian 
letter.  Now  this  said  letter  must  be  as  much  about  myself  and 

nothing  else  as  the  conversation  of  the  W T 's  about 

the  other  T 's,  and  this  for  very  good  reasons.     It  is  near 

two  months  since  I  have  seen  a  newspaper,  and  as  yet  I  have 
heard  nothing  here  of  how  the  old  world  goes  on,  and  I  have  just 
received  the  agreeable  intelligence  that  the  gentleman  to  whose 
care  all  my  letters  were  addressed  has  been  for  the  last  six 
months  at  Napoli  di  Romania,  and  has  most  probably  got  them 
all  safe  there.  From  our  particular  family  circumstances  this  is 
most  vexing ;  but  I  hope  to  get  them  in  ten  days  or  so.  I  will 
not,  however,  wait  so  long  to  write  to  grandmamma  through 
you,  and  to  tell  her  I  am  just  as  fond  of  her,  and  think  as  much 
about  her  in  Greece  as  in  Rome,  in  Rome  as  in  England,  and 
earnestly  hope  to  find  good  accounts  of  her  health  and  goings  on 
in  the  first  English  epistle  I  lay  my  hands  on.  I  wrote  a  murder- 
and-robbery  kind  of  letter  from  Zante — which,  however,  was 
literally  true,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  things  at  this  moment 
are  rather  worse  than  better.  .  .  .  There  is  literally  no 
government  whatever,  so  the  wonder  rather  is  that  things  are  not 
in  a  still  more  desperate  state  than  they  are.  .  .  .  The  roads 
in  every  direction  are  insecure,  and  travelling  very  difficult ;  but 
it  is  the  opinion  of  all  the  National  people  that  it  will  last  but 
a  short  time. 

One  of  the  Provisional  Government  here,  a  merely  nominal 


GREECE   AND    POETRY.  133 

thing1,  told  me  that  the  Greeks  in  this  respect  are  unlike  every 
other  nation.  The  moment  they  feel  themselves  under  a  consti- 
tutionally appointed  Government  that  understand  them,  they 
will  lay  down  their  arms  and  become  absolutely  quiet,  as  hap- 
pened at  the  accession  of  Capo  d'Istria.  General  Church,  and 
indeed  everybody  worth  listening  to,  says  the  same  thing.  .  .  . 
Of  what  I  have  seen,  if  Greece  and  its  associations  have  absorbed 
most  of  the  interest,  Turkey  and  the  Turks  have  contributed  not 
a  little  to  the  amusement.  The  step  that  transfers  you  from  a 
Christian  to  a  Mohammedan  land  is  wider  than  perhaps  any 
other  in  the  world.  You  are  with  people  who  seem  to  be  guided 
by  none  of  the  motives  of  action  which  are  commonly  attributed 
to  men.  There  they  sit  on  their  broad  sofas  the  whole  day  long, 
never  working,  reading,  or  seeming  to  think,  with  an  immense 
train  of  motley  attendants  standing  at  the  end  of  the  room, 
always  ready  to  renew  the  pipe  and  coffee  at  the  instant,  with 
in  fact  no  apparent  occupation  except  the  string  of  beads  like  a 
rosary  which  everyone  carries  in  his  hand  for  something  to  play 
with,  passing  the  beads  up  and  down.  Their  power  of  patience 
and  subdual  of  the  general  passions  of  mankind  is  most  wonder- 
ful; for  instance,  they  do  not  entertain  the  slightest  rancour 
against  the  Greeks  for  having  shaken  off  their  yoke,  nor  spite 
against  those  who  assisted  them  to  do  it.  In  fact,  they  are  now 
on  excellent  terms  with  the  Greeks.  They  are  most  civil  when 
you  call  upon  them,  but  with  few  exceptions  the  effect  is  always 
the  same.  Some  of  the  highest  classes  are  imitating  European 
manners  with  a  ludicrous  zeal,  sitting  perched  cross-legged  on 
hard  chairs,  and  pretending  to  find  them  very  comfortable,  and 
drinking  tea  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  I  can  hardly  say  whether 
the  impression  you  receive  in  this  country  of  objects  you  have 
read  about  is  as  great  as  you  expect.  It  is  in  general  so  very 
different  that  you  can  scarcely  measure  the  two.  Thermopylffi 
certainly  surpassed  all  anticipation,  and  Negropont  exceeds  in 
natural  beauty  everything  I  have  ever  seen ;  and  for  Athens, 
even  if  it  were  not  Athens,  there  are  some  points  of  view  like 
nothing  else  in  the  world.  The  whole  modern  town,  which  is 


134  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

described  by  Clark  and  others  as  pretty  and  flourishing,  is  now 
one  mass  of  ruins,  the  Turks  having  pulled  down  every  house. 
One  street  only  is  rebuilt,  for  the  market,  and  the  rest  of  the 
inhabitants  have  patched  up  a  house  here  and  there  as  well  as 
they  can.  Above  this  desolation  rise  about  half  a  dozen  of  ugly- 
shaped  white  and  painted  Italian  kind  of  "  palazzos  "  belonging 
to  Consuls  and  other  European  residents,  making  a  disgusting 
contrast  to  the  few  unparagoned  edifices  that  time  and  the  Turks 
have  spared  of  the  old  city.  Your  view  is  thus  doubly  distracted 
from  what  ought  to  be  its  sole  object,  and  it  is  only  by  taking 
refuge  on  the  side  of  the  citadel  away  from  the  town  that  you 
can  limit  it  to  the  glorious  remains.  The  Parthenon  is  far  more 
a  ruin  than  I  believed.  The  last  seven  years  of  civil  war  have 
terribly  advanced  the  injury  the  Venetians  began  long  ago,  and 
the  chasm  is  not  only  so  great  between  the  two  ends  of  the 
temple  that  the  eye  hardly  takes  them  in  as  one  building,  but 
the  columns  themselves  have  been  so  chipped  and  shattered  by 
balls  and  bombs  that  the  solemn  effect  of  their  immense  circum- 
ference and  height  is  sadly  diminished.  It  is  quite  painful  to 
read  the  descriptions  of  earlier  travels  and  feel  how  much  you 
have  lost. 

The  perfectness  of  the  other  monuments,  however,  is  a  great 
compensation,  and  their  very  fewness  makes  it  the  more  wonder- 
ful that  so  many  others  should  have  gone  down  into  the  dust 
without  a  trace,  and  these  selected  ones  still  standing  very  nearly 
the  same  as  when  they  were  gazed  at  by  old  Athenian  eyes.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  doubt  that  if  a  firm  Government  is  ever  established 
in  Greece,  Athens  alone  can  be  selected  as  the  capital.  Supposing 
this  to  take  place  soon,  it  will  require  but  little  money  and 
trouble  to  rebuild  the  city,  and,  in  a  few  years  after,  we  may 
expect  to  see  the  city  of  Solon  degraded  into  the  condition  of  the 
city  of  Cicero,  and  as  many  silly  and  useless  gazers  on  the  hill 
of  Minerva  as  on  the  Roman  Capitol.  Now,  the  solitude  of  the 
present  goes  well  with  the  solitude  of  the  past,  and  what  little 
society  there  is,  is  of  a  very  pleasant  character.  It  is  nearly  confined 
to  the  families  of  the  American  Episcopalian  missionaries,  who 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  135 

are  doing  worlds  of  good.  They  have  schools  of  every  kind,  and 
for  every  purpose,  and  are  assisted  in  all  ways  by  the  Greek 
Church,  with  which  they  are  on  the  best  terms,  as  they  attempt 
to  make  no  converts,  but  merely  ask  for  an  unlimited  distribution 
of  the  text  of  the  Bible,  which  it  is  quite  willing  to  sanction. 
They  do  and  give  everything  gratis,  and  have  a  printing  press, 
whence  they  circulate  everything  they  think  will  be  useful. 
Their  wives  generally  assist  in  the  good  work,  which  must  in 
the  common  course  of  things  meet  with  a  just  success.  I  was 
much  amused  at  the  children  singing  one  of  Watts's  hymns  in 
Greek,  to  the  tune  of  "  God  save  the  King." 

Deeply  interested  as  Milnes  was  in  the  classical 
memories  evoked  by  his  tour,  he  was  still  more  deeply 
absorbed  in  the  spectacle  which  Greece  at  that  moment 
presented,  as  it  was  emerging  from  its  struggle  with  the 
Turks,  and  the  old  and  new  forces  were  confronting  each 
other  for  the  last  time.  The  picturesque  side  of  the 
rule  of  the  Pashas  had,  as  has  been  told,  many  attractions 
for  him,  and  he  bewailed  the  fact  that  their  contact  with 
the  new  civilisation  was  leading  the  Mussulmans  to  adopt 
European  customs  and  costumes,  to  abandon  the  turban 
in  favour  of  the  tarbusch,  and  to  introduce  knives  and 
forks  at  the  dinners  at  which  they  entertained  the 
passing  stranger.  And  whilst  he  was  thus  strongly 
interested  in  watching  the  receding  waves  of  the  Otto- 
man invasion  as  they  withdrew  from  the  territory 
which  they  had  so  long  submerged,  so,  with  his  quick 
mind  and  wide-spreading  sympathies,  he  was  also 
intensely  interested  in  observing  the  first  attempts  of 
Modern  Greece  to  form  a  constitutional  government. 

I  have  seen  just  enough  of  Greece  [he  wrote  to  his  mother 


136  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

from  Athens]  to  make  me  wish  to  see  more.  I  have  learned 
enough  to  feel  that  every  day  I  spend  here  brings  with  it  its  own 
profit.  The  rough  travelling,  though  amusing  for  two  or  three 
days,  is  rather  boring  in  the  long  run,  but  one  is  driven  to  think 
a  good  deal  in  self-defence. 

The  most  noticeable  incident  of  his  return  journey 
was  his  detention  for  a  fortnight  in  the  lazaretto  at 
Ancona,  a  tedious  imprisonment,  which  would,  however, 
have  been  still  further  prolonged  had  it  not  been  for 
the  good  offices  of  Cardinal  Weld  and  other  friends  in 
Rome,  through  whom  his  liberation  at  an  unexpectedly 
early  date  was  procured. 

Mr.  Milnes  was  at  this  time  in  England.  His  wife 
and  daughter  had  left  Milan  in  October,  for  Venice, 
where  they  took  up  their  abode  in  a  small  house  which 
they  had  hired  for  the  winter.  Nothing  could  exceed 
the  kindness  of  the  Venetians  to  the  English  visitors, 
who  thus  made  the  city  their  head-quarters  for  a 
prolonged  sojourn. 

We  had  seven  houses  [says  Mrs.  Milnes  in  her  journal]  open 
to  us  whenever  we  chose  to  go  out  of  an  evening  for  society. 
At  the  Comtesse  Albrizzi's  we  met  all  the  literati ;  she  and  the 
Comtesse  Benzone  had  been  in  their  day  the  great  beauties  of 
Venice,  and  always  rivals.  Madame  Benzone,  however,  never 
pretended  to  literature,  in  which  the  Comtesse  Albrizzi  freely 
shone.  Lord  Byron  had  frequented  these  houses  more  than  any 
others  in  Venice,  and  it  was  at  the  Benzones'  that  he  first  met 
Madame  Guiccioli. 

Mrs.  Milnes  gives  a  lively  account  of  the  social  life 
of  Venice  during  this  winter ;  of  the  gambling  which 
went  on  among  all  classes  ;  of  the  amusements  by 


GREECE    AND   POETRY.  137 

means  of  which  the  Venetians  strove  to  drive  out  of 
their  minds  the  recollection  of  their  subjection  to  the 
hated  Austrians  ;  of  the  Opera  ;  of  Thalberg,  who  made 
his  first  appearance  as  a  pianist  during  the  season ;  and  of 
the  soirees,  where  music,  dancing,  and  love-making,  made 
the  hours  pass  pleasantly.  It  was  into  this  bright  and 
congenial  atmosphere  that  Eichard  Milnes  plunged 
immediately  on  his  return  from  Greece  at  Christmas, 
and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  one  so  full  of  social 
sympathies  and  possessed  of  so  many  social  gifts  should 
at  once  have  become  a  popular  figure  in  the  society  of 
Venice.  His  success  in  theatrical  performances  has 
already  been  noticed,  in  the  account  of  his  life  at 
Cambridge.  Such  performances  were  not  much  in  the 
way  of  the  Venetians,  but  it  may  be  noted  in  passing 
that  his  singing  of  the  buffo  songs,  which  were  at  that 
time  so  much  in  vogue  in  Italy,  delighted  them,  and 
gained  for  him  more  than  a  passing  fame. 

His  sister,  too,  shared  his  popularity  with  the 
Venetians,  upon  whom  her  gift  in  singing  made  a  deep 
impression.  Mrs.  Milnes,  in  her  journal,  mentions  one 
incident  of  a  dramatic  character  in  connection  with  the 
appearance  of  her  daughter  at  a  large  party.  Miss 
Milnes  was  singing  amid  the  dead  silence  of  the  com- 
pany, her  mother  accompanying  her.  Suddenly  the 
latter  observed  the  guests  rise  in  great  agitation  and 
point  to  the  wall  immediately  above  the  spot  where 
Miss  Milnes  was  standing.  The  latter  looked  also,  and 
saw  a  large  scorpion  crawling  down  towards  her.  She 
immediately  seized  it  in  her  pocket-handkerchief,  carried 


138  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD  HOUGHTON. 

it  to  the  window  and  set  it  at  liberty,  amidst  the 
screams  of  the  Italians,  who  declared  that  none  but  an 
English  girl  could  have  done  such  a  thing. 

Amid  the  gaieties  of  the  season  at  Venice  and  the 
enjoyments  of  the  many  hospitalities  showered  upon 
himself  and  his  mother  and  sister,  Eichard  Milnes  had 
much  at  this  time  to  cause  him  trouble  and  anxiety. 
The  affairs  of  Eodes  Milnes  were  now  at  their  lowest 
ebb.  Everybody  liked  him,  and  few  liked  him  better 
than  did  his  nephew.  Eichard  Milnes  and  his  uncle 
were,  indeed,  upon  terms  of  intimacy  somewhat  peculiar 
considering  their  relationship.  The  younger  man  never 
spoke  of  the  other  except  as  "  Eodes,"  and  his  manner 
of  addressing  him  in  his  letters,  "  Dear  Eodes,"  was  in 
itself  proof  of  the  perfect  equality  which  prevailed 
between  them,  despite  the  disparity  in  their  ages. 
Universally  popular  as  Eodes  Milnes  was,  he  might 
still  have  been  left  to  come  to  utter  ruin  had  it  not 
been  for  the  high  and  chivalrous  sense  of  honour  which 
inspired  his  brother. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Venice,  December  24M. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, — I  have  just  read  over  for  the  third  time 
all  your  letters,  and  when  I  think  of  the  fearful  things  you  have 
undergone  I  am  almost  unable  to  put  pen  to  paper.  The  imme- 
diate effect  of  all  our  misfortunes  upon  you  is  so  overpowering 
that  the  misforttmes  themselves  seem  nothing  in  comparison, 
and  if  it  were  not  that  in  your  last  letter  there  is  something  less 
painful,  I  don't  know  whether  I  could  have  dared  sit  down  to 
this  one.  I  see  everything  that  is  dark  and  desperate  in  our 
affairs,  yet  I  believe  I  could  face  it  all  calmly  enough ;  but  to 


GREECE   AND    POETRY.  139 

follow  you  from  your  raised  hopes  to  the  misery  you  have 
suffered,  brings  life  home  to  me  with  a  depth  of  bitterness  I 
never  yet  knew.  In  your  noble  conduct  to  poor  Rodes,  and  the 
involuntary  respect  which  even  the  world  is  obliged  to  pay  you 
in  your  depression,  I  find  the  only  source  of  consolation.  I  hope 
nothing,  and  I  believe  you  do  not  either;  and  to  be  striving  on 
even  against  hope  is  a  blessed  thing ;  but  do  not,  pray  do  not, 
load  yourself  with  the  capricious  pain  of  believing  that  these 
sorrows  have  a  retributive  meaning.  ...  As  soon  as  you 
safely  can,  come  to  us  (neither  my  feelings  nor  yours  would  bid 
us  come  to  you),  and  let  us  pass  the  next  years  of  our  existence 
unknowing  and  unknown,  making  our  very  poverty  a  source  of 
our  intellectual  well-being  through  keeping  us  out  of  the  noise 
and  calls  of  general  society.  You  cannot  suppose  that  I  am  now 
in  any  mood  to  entertain  you  with  a  tale  of  my  Grecian  tour; 
it  is  as  much  as  I  can  do  if  I  get  through  a  few  leading  and  late 
facts.  ...  I  see  that  it  would  be  perfectly  impossible  to 
go  out  nowhere  here;  the  only  thing  is  to  limit  it  as  much  as 
possible.  I  shall  amuse  myself  by  throwing  my  tour  into  a 
legible  form  for  you,  and  if  it  pleases  me,  for  the  world.  .  .  . 
If  you  ever  regret  that  our  own  sad  fortunes  put  off  to  an 
infinite  distance  all  your  Parliamentary  projects  for  me,  it  is 
some  consolation  to  remember  that  in  the  present  state  of  the 
political  world,  with  my  political  feelings,  even  with  a  hundred- 
fold my  ability,  my  career  could  never  be  anything  but  one  of 
ambitious  pleasure.  There  is  disgrace  on  the  very  threshold  to 
come  in  as  a  nominee  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  (which  I  was 
really  vexed  by  seeing  you  envied  Gladstone),  or  by  a  contest  with 
Mr.  Gully,*  who  I  see  is  about  to  take  your  senatorial  seat.  This 
may  perhaps  seem  fox-and-grapish,  but  I  feel  it  none  the  less. 

This  is  a  sad  letter  to  come  from  a  young  man  who 
had  begun  life  with  high  hopes ;  but  the  reader  will  note 

*  Mr.  Gully,  at  one  time  a  professional  pugilist,  and  subsequently 
member  for  Pomfret.  In  later  years  B.  M.  M.  knew  Gully  well,  and 
had  a  high  respect  for  him. 


140  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

the  tone  of  manly  fortitude  and  of  tender  solicitude  for 
those  dear  to  him  which  marks  the  writer's  words;  and 
reading  this  letter — one  of  many  such  which  might  be 
quoted  here  did  the  limits  of  space  permit — he  may 
probably  form  a  truer  estimate  of  the  character  of 
Richard  Milnes,  of  the  warmth  of  his  affections,  the 
strength  of  his  sense  of  honour,  and  the  underlying 
gravity  of  a  mind  which,  on  the  surface,  often  seemed 
to  the  outsider  to  be  essentially  light  and  frivolous,  than 
he  can  otherwise  hope  to  do. 

It  was  about  this  period  also,  when  family  affairs 
were  of  so  depressing  a  character,  that  Milnes  passed 
through  one  of  those  spiritual  crises  which  come  to 
most  men  once  at  least  during  the  course  of  their  lives, 
but  which,  it  may  be,  few  would  have  associated  with  him. 
Frequent  mention  has  been  made  in  his  letters  of  his 
attendance  on  the  sermons  of  Edward  Irving  and  other 
preachers  of  eminence  and  renown  in  England.  In  his 
earliest  days  his  family  had  been  connected  with  the 
Unitarian  body;  at  college  a  more  orthodox  and 
Evangelical  form  of  faith  attracted  him ;  but  now, 
through  his  intimacy  with  MacCarthy  and  Wiseman 
at  Eome,  he  found  himself  drawn  into  close  sympathy 
with  the  more  enlightened  section  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  It  was  whilst  he  was  in  Greece 
that  Charles  MacCarthy,  writing  to  him  (Aug.  30th, 
1832)  said  :- 

Mezzofanti,  whom  I  often  see,  talks  always  most  kindly  of 
you,  and  is  full  of  hopes  that  you  will  return  to  the  bosom  of  her 
whom  Carl  vie  calls  "  the  slain  mother,"  but  who,  I  trust,  is  not 


GREECE   AND   POETRY.  141 

dead,  but  only  sleepeth.     I  have  had  two  or  three  most  affec- 
tionate and  magnificent  letters  from  Lamennais,  and  one  from 

Montalembert I  am  writing  some   verses   on  the 

Pope's  blessing,  because  you  said  you  would  write  some  too,  and 
I  want  to  see  whether  we  shall  fall  into  the  same  line  of  thought. 
.  What  do  you  mean  by  talking  about  the  twilight  of 
your  mind  ?  It  must  surely  be  the  morning,  not  the  evening  twi- 
light which  you  feel.  You  have  bright  prospects  and  happy 
auguries  flitting  about  your  path,  and  the  world  before  you 
where  to  choose.  I  shall  always  look  back  with  delight  to  the 
few  happy  hours  I  have  passed  in  your  society.  Wiseman,  the 
only  man  one  has  to  talk  to,  desires  to  be  most  kindly  remem- 
bered to  you. 

It  was  a  striking  commentary  upon  MacCarthy's 
brilliant  picture  of  Milnes's  future,  that  at  that  very  time 
Milnes  liimself  was  writing  to  his  father,  lamenting  that 
he  could  see  in  no  direction  clearly  before  him.  With 
the  family  fortunes  Lad  vanished  for  the  present,  and  as 
he  believed  permanently,  the  hope  of  sitting  as  member 
for  Pontefract,  whilst  he  was  too  proud  to  listen  to  his 
father's  suggestion  that,  like  his  friend  and  contem- 
porary, Mr.  Gladstone,  he  should  accept  a  seat  from 
some  great  nobleman  like  the  Duke  of  Newcastle. 

Even  supposing  [he  writes]  the  case  of  the  patronage  of  a 
Duke  of  Newcastle,  do  you  believe  that  if  Gladstone  speaks  with 
the  tongue  of  angels  he  can  ever  have  really  any  weight  in  the 
House  or  gain  any  reputation  except  the  unmeaning  one  that  he 
is  the  only  Tory  except  Peel  that  has  a  word  to  say  ?  I  was  not 
at  all  sanguine,  but  still  hoped  that  the  ruin  of  the  Conservatives 
would  not  come  on  so  immediately. 

This  refers  to  the  result  of  the  election  of  January, 
1833,  by  which  it  seemed  to  Milnes  arid  others  that 


142  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

something    like    absolute    ruin   had   fallen    upon    the 
landed  interest  and  the  Conservative  party. 

Writing  to  MacCarthy  (Dec.  27th,  1832),  Milnes 
tells  him  that  Hare  is  at  Rome,  and  sends  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  his  college  friend.  At  the  same  time  he 
encloses  to  him  a  copy  of  one  of  his  earliest  poems,  that 
which  appears  in  the  "  Poems  of  Many  Years  "  under 
the  title  of  "  Life  in  Death." 

C.  J.  MacCartky  to  R.  M.  M. 

Rome,  26  Dec.,  1833. 

.  .  .  .  Since  I  wrote  to  you  last  Wiseman  has  returned 
after  a  prosperous  and  successful  journey ;  and  glad  as  I  was  to 
see  him  again,  I  found  his  exalted  spirits  and  the  great  interest 
which  he  takes  in  the  active  affairs  of  life  jar  very  much  with  my 
present  disposition.  I  thank  you  infinitely  for  your  charming 
verses.  Though  I  shun  anything  like  comparison,  I  will  send 
you  some  of  mine,  but  not  by  the  post,  because  I  have  not  room 
in  my  letters  for  all  I  have  to  say  to  you.  It  was  not  till 
Wednesday  last  that  I  was  able  to  see  Hare.  I  could  not  for  a 
long  time  find  out  where  he  lived,  and  I  go  out  so  little  that  I 
was  not  likely  to  discover  him.  Wiseman,  however,  met  him 
somewhere  in  society,  and  asked  him  to  call.  He  came  imme- 
diately with  a  Mr.  Worsley,  who,  I  think,  also  knows  you.  I 
gave  your  letter  to  Hare,  and  was  most  graciously  received,  but 
as  we  were  only  half  an  hour  together,  and  that  in  Wiseman's 
rooms,  I  could  not  have  much  talk  with  him.  I  hope  we  shall 
know  more  of  one  another  before  long.  .  .  .  He  has  given 
great  delight  to  Wiseman  and  great  scandal  to  some  other  people 
by  preaching  a  sermon  last  Sunday  in  the  Protestant  Chapel 
here  on  the  "  indecent  behaviour  of  the  English  in  Catholic 
Churches/' which  sermon  he  proposed  printing  here,  but  Wiseman, 
to  whom  he  applied,  seemed  to  think  there  would  be  too  many 
difficulties  in  the  way.  .  .  .  What  an  escape  you  have  had 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  143 

in  not  being  elected  for  Pomfret !  A  boxer  who  has  made  a  for- 
tune by  becoming  a  blackleg  would  have  been  a  pretty  colleague 
for  my  philosopher  and  friend. 

During  this  period  of  much  inward  depression, 
MacCarthy  seems  to  have  heen  the  chief  confidant  and 
friend  of  Milnes,  and  it  is  evidently  in  reply  to  a  letter 
full  of  self-depreciation  that  the  former  writes  to  Milnes, 
March  2nd,  1833,  as  follows  :— 

I  know  you  too  well  to  think  you  are  fishing  for  compliments 
in  your  depreciation  of  yourself,  and  so  I  will  tell  you  candidly 
that  I  consider  your  judgment  of  yourself  much  too  hard.  I 
don't  by  any  means  believe  in  that  frivolity  of  mind  of  which  you 
are  pleased  to  accuse  yourself.  After  all,  what  could  you  do  in 
your  present  situation  which  you  do  not  do?  Your  existence  and 
mine  are  yet  in  embryo.  We  both  of  us  have  our  task  to  work  out, 
and  in  the  meantime  let  us  wait  patiently.  .  .  .  Your  chosen 
ghostly  father  feels  much  too  deeply  the  affectionate  confidence 
which  you  place  in  him,  and  has  much  too  high  an  opinion  of 
your  own  judgment  and  power  of  directing  yourself,  to  venture 
on  a  prescription  for  any  of  your  mental  indispositions.  .  .  As 
well  as  I  can  judge  from  what  I  have  seen  of  your  fine  feelings 
and  ardent  affections,  I  should  say  that  you  would  end  in  some 
great  passion,  either  of  love  or  of  generous  ambition,  which  will 
give  you  that  steadiness  of  purpose,  that  concentration  of  all  your 
power^  into  one  burning  point,  which  is  all  you  want,  and  for 
which  I  think  you  have  all  the  seeds  and  elements  in  your 
mental  constitution. 

Early  in  June,  1833,  the  stay  of  Milnes  at  Venice 
cama  to  a  close.  Leaving  his  mother  and  sister  behind 
him,  he  started  with  two  newly  made  friends,  the  Comte 
and  Comtesse  Circourt,  for  a  tour  through  Northern 
Italy,  which  eventually  brought  him  to  Florence 


144  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

towards  the  close  of  the  month.  Here  he  was  attacked 
by  intermittent  fever,  and  was  for  a  time  seriously  ill. 
Disagreeable  as  the  incident  was,  it  was  not  with- 
out its  compensations.  Through  Julius  Hare,  Milnes 
had  been  brought  into  communication  with  Walter 
Savage  Landor,  who  was  then  resident  at  Fiesole,  and 
they  had  frequently  corresponded  with  each  other.  They 
had  not  met,  however,  before  this  summer  of  1833.  No 
sooner  did  the  old  poet  learn  that  the  young  one  was 
lying  ill  at  an  hotel  in  the  place,  than  he  came  to  his 
assistance,  insisted  upon  taking  him  to  his  own  villa, 
and  there  nursed  him  with  the  almost  passionate  tender- 
ness and  self-devotion  which  were  characteristic  of  the 
man  in  certain  moods. 

Mr.  Landor  [writes  Milnes  to  his  mother  from  Fiesole]  was 
kind  enough  to  ask  me  to  come  and  stay  at  his  beautiful  villa  as 
long  as  I  liked,  and  here  I  have  been  a  week.  I  have  had  two 
attacks  of  fever  since  I  am  here,  and  Mrs.  Landor  was  as 
attentive  to  me  and  kind  as  if  I  had  been  at  home.  But  now, 
as  some  days  have  gone  by  without  any  signs  of  recurrence,  I 
really  hope  that  this  delicious  mountain  air  and  quinine  have 
driven  it  away  altogether.  I  must  not,  however,  be  in  any  hurry 
to  get  away,  and  as  I  have  my  books,  and  Mr.  Lander's  delight- 
ful conversation,  and  my  whole  day  to  myself,  and  a  carriage  at 
my  orders  whenever  I  want  to  drive  out,  I  don't  know  how  I 
could  be  better  off  except  with  you.  The  bother  of  this  fever 
business  has  been  not  only  the  eight  or  ten  napoleons  it  has  cost 
me,  but  the  state  of  mental  lassitude  into  which  it  threw  me,  and 
which  I  have  not  yet  got  over.  I  have  hardly  been  able  to  read 
for  five  minutes  together,  much  less  write  anything,  not  even  the 
most  trifling  letters. 

His  letters  during  the  illness  betray  many  signs  of 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  145 

this  mental  lassitude,  and  of  the  accompanying  depres- 
sion of  spirits  which  in  the  circumstances  was  natural. 

Landor  [he  writes  to  his  father]  is  very  delightful,  though 
not  in  high  spirits — much  less  paradoxical  than  he  used  to  be,  and 
therefore  more  instructive.  He  says  his  visit  to  England  cured 
him  of  Radicalism  and  sent  him  back  a  Tory.  I  see  Gladstone 
has  spoken,  and  it  appears  gracefully.  The  "redaction"  of  my 
Greek  travel  goes  on  slowly,  not  from  inclination  on  my  part,  but 
from  the  nature  of  the  work,  which  cannot  be  thought  on  too  long 
before  it  is  put  to  paper,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  avoid  a  general 
monotonous  effect.  Landor  approves  of  some  part  that  I  have 
shown  him,  and  he  approves  of  few  things.  If  you  bring  any 
new  book  from  England,  let  it  be  Horace  Walpole's  new 
Letters.  ...  I  have  hardly  bought  a  book  this  twelvemonth. 
I  also  asked  you  to  bring  me  the  Paris  edition  of  Anastasius ;  this 
I  have  re-read  here,  so  do  not  get  it.  If  Trelawny's  "  Ad  ven- 
tures of  a  Younger  Son0  falls  in  your  way,  pray  read  it.  For  mere 
power  of  expression  I  think  it  is  the  most  wonderful  thing  I 
know.  Landor  says  it  is  like  nothing  but  the  Iliad.  .... 
I  had  intended  to  stay  a  week  with  an  Italian  family  at  Perugia, 
the  richest  and  most  intelligent  of  the  Romagna,  but  the  Papal 
Government  have  arrested  the  head  of  it,  probably  for  his 
wealth.  He  is  now  in  the  dungeons  of  Civita  Castellana. 

When,  thanks  to  the  kindness  of  the  Landors,  he 
had  recovered  from  his  illness,  Milnes  went  to  Switzer- 
land, where  he  joined  his  family,  to  which  his  father 
was  now  added,  and  spent  some  time  with  them  at 
Berne,  and  on  the  Swiss  lakes.  In  the  autumn  he 
accompanied  his  father  to  England  by  way  of  the 
Rhine. 

It  was  during  his  stay  in  Switzerland  that  he  re- 
ceived from  one  of  his  college  friends  a  welcome  hudget 
of  home  news. 


146  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Francis   Garden  to  R.  M.  M. 

Croy,  September  24^,  1833. 

I  did  not  come  here  till  near  the  end  of  July,  having  stayed 
up  at  Cambridge  to  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association, 
then  having  spent  ten  days  with  Trench  at  Hadleigh,  and  then 
ten  days  more  in  London.  The  Association  has,  of  course,  no 
inconsiderable  share  of  humbug,  but  was  nevertheless  very 
interesting.  .  .  .  The  highest  luxury,  however,  of  the 
whole  week  was  quietly  meeting  Coleridge  both  at  breakfast 
and  at  dinner  at  your  friend  Thirlwall's ;  never  in  my  whole 
life  did  I  spend  such  a  day.  We  got  rid  of  the  "  phantom 
time"  very  soon,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  being  made  to  think 
in  Trinity;  and,  to  use  a  phrase  of  your  own,  of  being  made  to 
"  see  the  invisible  and  touch  the  intangible."  My  ten  days  with 
Trench  were  precious.  He  is  the  best  man  and  the  best  clergy- 
man I  ever  knew,  and  his  preaching  superb,  yet  plain  enough 
for  his  auditors.  He  will  do  great  things  if  life  be  granted 
him.  .  .  .  Hallam  either  is  or  has  been  in  Germany  with 
his  father.  He  was  most  absurdly  gay  last  season,  a  mood  and 
habit  so  unsuited  to  his  character  that  I  cannot  believe  the 
tendency  will  last  long.  Alfred  Tennyson  was  here  before  I 
came  down,  and  like  a  rascal  would  not  wait  for  me.  He  saw 
this  part  of  the  world  in  the  worst  of  weather,  which  was  very 
provoking,  especially  as  he  had  previously  formed  a  theory  that 
Scotland  had  no  colour — a  theory  which,  however,  that  par- 
ticular week  may  have  tended  to  confirm.  It  is  a  most  unjust 
suspicion,  as  all  who  have  seen  the  country  in  fine  weather  can 
testify.  The  Apostles  are  flourishing  in  high  style.  1  had  the 
pleasure  of  begetting  one  the  other  day  in  the  person  of  the 
younger  Lushington  (brother  to  the  senior  medallist  of  the  year 
before  this).  He  is  a  glorious  fellow,  and  I  feel  great  pleasure 
in  thinking  that  what  in  all  probability  has  been  my  last 
Apostolic  act  should  have  been  to  introduce  so  excellent  an 
acquisition  to  our  forces.  The  other  new  names  since  you  last 
saw  us  are  Macaulay  (cousin  to  Tom  Bab),  Morton  Merivale, 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  147 

by  way  of  illustrating  the  saying,  "  better  late  than  never/' 
and  Spring  Rice,  the  last  of  whom  is  the  only  freshman 
among  us. 

In  November  we  get  a  glimpse  of  him  through  a 
letter  from  one  of  his  aunts  in  London,  where  he  is 
deeply  engaged  with  his  publisher,  Mr.  Moxon,  cor- 
recting proofs  and  preparing  for  the  production  of  his 
"  Impressions  of  Greece."  "  I  never  saw  him  better," 
says  his  aunt,  writing  to  Mrs.  Milnes,  "  and  my  mother 
is  so  delighted  to  receive  him  unchanged  in  heart  and 
temper,  not  tainted  by  the  corruption  of  the  world." 

In  common  with  a  wide  circle  of  his  college  friends, 
he  suffered  at  this  time  a  grievous  sorrow  in  the  death 
of  Arthur  Hallam.  Although  of  late  years  they  had 
seen  but  little  of  .each  other,  Milnes's  affection  for  his 
gifted  fellow-student  had  never  failed,  and  he  mourned 
for  him  as  for  a  brother.  When  the  "  Memorials  "  of 
his  tour  in  Greece  appeared,  it  bore  a  dedication  to  the 
father  of  his  friend,  Henry  Hallam  the  historian,  and  in 
it  Milnes  bore  his  own  testimony  to  the  worth  of  the 
young  man,  the  light  of  whose  life  had  so  soon  g^one 
out.  "  We  are  deprived,"  he  said,  "  not  only  of  a 
beloved  friend,  of  a  delightful  companion,  but  of  a 
most  wise  and  influential  counsellor  in  all  the  serious 
concerns  of  existence,  of  an  incomparable  critic  in  all 
our  literary  efforts,  and  of  the  example  of  one  who  was 
as  much  before  us  in  everything  else  as  he  is  now  in 
the  way  of  life."  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  the 
memory  of  Arthur  Hallam,  whose  name  has,  through 
the  genius  of  another  of  his  contemporaries  and  friends, 


148  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

attained  a  literary  immortality.  I  may  mention,  how- 
ever, that  the  lines  in  Lord  Houghton's  "  Poems  of 
Many  Years,"  beginning, 

"  I  am  not  where  I  was  yesterday, 
Though  my  home  be  still  the  same, 
For  I  have  lost  the  veriest  friend 
Whom  ever  a  friend  could  name," 

were  composed  on  the  occasion  of  Arthur  Hallam's 
death. 

Soon  after  attending  the  funeral  of  his  friend,  Milnes 
returned  to  Italy. 

JR.  M.  M.  to  Miss  Caroline  Milnes. 

Wednesday  \JDec.?},  1833. 

DEAR  CAROLINE, — It  is  decided  that  I  am  not  to  see  you  all 
again  till  next  summer.  1  leave  London  for  Dover  to-night,  and 
shall  be  at  Calais  to-morrow.  If  I  was  to  go  to  Rome  at  all 
there  was  not  a  day  to  be  lost,  and  an  interview  at  Hastings 
would  have  had  so  much  more  of  parting  than  of  meeting  about 
it  that  it  is  quite  as  well  as  it  is.  ...  I  'shall  leave  a 
parcel  for  you  in  Carter's  care,  containing  some  German  books  I 
found  at  Fryston,  the  Italian  book  which  you  must  get  half- 
bound,  and  two  copies  of  my  BiicJtlein,  one  for  you  all,  and  the 
other  you  must  send  to  Mr.  Hare  by  the  Brighton  coach.  You 
must  arrange  to  sell  as  many  more  for  me  as  you  can.  I  have 
not  given  a  single  copy  to  any  of  my  friends,  so  nobody  can  be 
jealous.  .  .  .  You  have  never  told  me  anything  about 
Bodes,*  though  I  heard  he  was  much  worse,  so  pray  write  to  me, 
Hotel  Bristol,  Place  Vendome,  Paris.  I  suppose  I  shall  stay  in 
Paris  a  week  or  so. 

Milnes  wrote  to  others  besides  his  aunt  on  the  subject 
of  his  book,  and  amongst  those  whom  he  addressed  was 

*  Bodes  Milues  died  abroad  in  1837. 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  149 

Alfred  Tennyson,  with  whom  his  correspondence  seems 
to  have  been  suspended  during  the  interval  since  he  left 
Cambridge.  From  Tennyson  he  received  the  following 
letter : — 

Alfred  Tennyson  to  R.  M.  M. 

Dec.  3rd,  1833. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — A  letter  from  you  was  like  a  message 
from  the  land  of  shadows.  It  is  so  long  since  I  have  looked  upon 
and  conversed  with  you  that  I  will  not  deny  but  that  you  had 
withdrawn  a  little  into  the  twilight.  Yet  you  do  me  a  wrong  in 
supposing  that  I  have  forgotten  you.  I  shall  not  easily  forget 
you,  for  you  have  that  about  you  which  one  remembers  with 
pleasure.  I  am  rejoiced  to  hear  that  you  intend  to  present  us 
with  your  Grecian  impressions.  Your  gay  and  airy  mind  must 
have  caught  as  many  colours  from  the  landskip  you  moved 
through  as  a  flying  soap-bubble — a  comparison  truly  somewhat 
irreverent,  yet  I  meant  it  not  as  such;  though  I  care  not  if  you 
take  it  in  an  evil  sense,  for  is  it  not  owed  to  you  for  your  three 
years'  silence  to  me  whom  you  professed  to  love  and  to  care  for  ? 
And  in  the  second  place,  for  your  expression  "cleaning  one's 
mind  of  Greek  thoughts  and  Greek  feelings  to  make  way  for 
something  better/'  It  is  a  sad  thing  to  have  a  dirty  mind  full 
of  Greek  thoughts  and  feelings.  What  an  Augean  it  must  have 
been  before  the  Greek  thoughts  got  there  !  To  have  done  with 
this  idle  banter,  I  hope  that  in  your  book  you  have  given  us 
much  glowing  description  and  little  mysticism.  I  know  that 
you  can  describe  richly  and  vividly.  Give  orders  to  Moxon,  and 
he  will  take  care  that  the  volume  is  conveyed  to  me. 

Believe  me,  dear  Richard, 

Ever  thine,  A.  T. 

P.S. — Charles  and  Frederick  are  neither  of  them  here,  so  that 
I  am  forced  to  cover  their  remembrances  to  you. 

The  little  book  had  been  eagerly  expected  by  Milnes's 
friends,  with  whom  his  reputation  stood  high,  and  they 


150  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

received  it  with  generous  appreciation.  It  is  true  that 
Connop  Thirl  wall,  in  criticising  the  volume,  rebuked  the 
author  for  having  declared  at  the  outset  that  the  Greece 
he  went  to  visit  was  the  land  of  his  own  imagination 
rather  than  that  of  reality  ;  but  even  he  did  full  justice 
to  the  graceful  and  -poetic  fancy  with  which  the  slender 
volume  was  filled,  and  to  the  genuine  enthusiasm  by 
which  it  was  inspired. 

Rome  was  very  full  during  that  winter  of  1833-34, 
and  Milnes  found  many  friends  there.  Doncaster  in  the ' 
race  week  he  declared  was  an  absolute  void  to  the 
Eternal  City  as  he  then  saw  it.  Its  chief  attraction  for 
him  for  the  moment  lay  in  the  fact  that  among  those 
residing  there  for  the  winter  and  spring  was  his  friend 
Stafford  O'Brien. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Mother. 

Rome,  Jan.  ZZnd,  1834. 

The  exclusives  are  exclusive  in  the  strictest  sense.  The 
Russian  Ambassador  will  see  nobody  but  Tories,  and  very  few 
of  them ;  and  as  Kestner  is  not  here,  the  other  ambassadors  are 
not  so  easy  to  get  to.  As  yet  I  have  only  dined  at  the  Ingrams' 
and  Hares',  and  been  at  a  ball  at  Mrs.  Hunter  Blair's,  who  has 
just  come  into  a  fortune  and  got  a  splendid  house.  Ladies 
Northlands,  Coventry,  and  Torlonia  give  dances  next  week,  and 
balls  will,  I  suppose,  go  on  thickening  to  the  end  of  the  Carnival, 
which,  it  is  said,  will  be  very  gay,  as  there  are  to  be  masks  and 
moccoletti.  My  two  Scotch  friends,  Garden  and  Monteith,  whom 
you  heard  Mrs.  Chambers  talk  about,  are  here,  and  so  we  have 
quite  a  Cambridge  coterie.  Charles  Gambier  is  very  nice,  and 
Mrs.  Botham  very  civil.  She  is  quite  among  the  fine,  and 
delights  in  giving  small,  exclusive,  stupid  parties.  There  is 
certainly  much  beauty.  Mrs.  Montagu,  the  Pagets,  Maynards, 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  151 

Percys,  another  little  Miss  Claxton,  a  Miss  Shipley  I  saw  in 
Switzerland,  and  some  Miss  Parkers.  Lady  Coventry  seems  in 
pleasant  mood,  but  is  getting  on  very  ill,  Lady  Anglesea  refusing 
to  visit  her,  and  having  all  the  great  people  on  her  side.  People 
cannot  imagine  how  she  will  muster  for  her  ball.  The  Circourts 
are  in  great  force  ;  Lady  Caroline  giving  up  going  out  entirely, 
and  leading  a  most  cloistered  life ;  Mr.  Wingfield  much  better ; 
the  Wandesfords  living  quite  secluded ;  Cortoni  fagged  to  death 
with  lessons,  and  his  wife  dying ;  Miss  Lockhart  never  stirring 
out,  but  Lady  L.  and  "  Old  Whity "  looking  very  well ;  the 
Bunsens  and  Gerhard  just  the  same,  and — I  could  go  on  in  this 
way  for  an  hour.  MacCarthy  is,  I  am  delighted  to  say,  in  much 
better  health,  leading  the  life  of  a  monk,  never  leaving  his 
college  walls.  He  has  had  a  dreadful  letter  from  Montalembert, 
who  is  quite  broken-hearted  at  the  public  censure  which  the  Pope 
has  pronounced  on  him  for  having  taken  the  part  of  the  Poles, 
calling  him  "  juvenem  plenum  malitise  et  temeritatis."  He 
seems  bowed  to  the  dust  by  it.  The  Abbe  Lamennais  has  just 
finished  by  retracting  everything  he  said,  and  submitting  him- 
self unreservedly  to  the  Pope  in  everything:  "thereby,"  Cardinal 
Weld  said  this  morning,  "  doing  himself  very  great  credit." 

The  Carnival  seems  to  have  equalled  the  anticipa- 
tions formed  respecting  it.  It  was  exceptionally  good, 
and  Milnes  and  his  friends  entered  into  it  with  the 
spirit  of  their  years. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Miss  Caroline  Milnes. 

Rome,  Feb.  28M,  1834. 

We  have  had  here  what  people  call  a  very  brilliant  Carnival. 
That  is,  people  pelted  one  another  with  sugar  and  lime  most 
assiduously  for  five  whole  days,  so  that  if  there  had  been  a  ditch 
by  the  side  of  the  Corso  all  the  world  would  have  fallen  into  it, 
for  they  were  indisputably  the  blind  leading  the  blind.  And 
there  was  plenty  of  masking  foolery  ;  for  instance,  I  paid  visits 
and  walked  about  in  white  muslin  and  a  blue  satin  toque,  &c., 


152  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

&c.  And  there  were  great  ambassadorial  balls  and  suppers,  and 
so  on.  The  tranquillity  of  the  Quaresima  is  only  broken  in  upon 
by  a  rapid  musketry  of  small  soirees,  which  we  have  attempted 
to  enliven  by  some  charades.  O'Brien  gave  his  first  evening 
party  to  a  select  fifty,  last  week,  with  great  success.  You  have 
doubtless  heard  of  the  illness  and  death  of  Mr.  Hare's  brother 
Augustus.  It  was  one  of  the  most  rapid  cases  of  consumption 
that  ever  occurred.  He  was  Julius's  favourite  brother,  and  Miss 
Hare's,  I  think,  too.  I  fear  she  will  have  suffered  from  the 
shock  very  seriously.  I  saw  him  laijd  in  his  narrow  bed,  in  that 
pleasant  place  below  the  old  pyramid,  which  you  no  doubt 
visited  when  you  were  here.  He  died  in  the  most  beautiful 
calm  of  spirit.  I  wish  I  had  brought  some  copies  of  my  book 
here  for  sale ;  it  would  have  gone  off  immensely,  as  there  are 
absolutely  crowds  starting  for  Greece  who  would  have  bought, 
on  the  expectation  of  its  telling  them  all  the  best  inns,  and  the 
prices  of  washing,  and  turkeys  a  la  Starke.*  I  suppose  Louisa 
will  be  interested  about  the  state  of  the  Church  at  Rome.  If 

there    was     nothing    against     Mr.  but     his     immense 

popularity,  it  would  be  enough  to  prejudice  me  against  him. 
But  really  the  way  in  which  he  steers  clear  of  offence  on  all 
sides,  establishes  him  as  the  prince  of  religious  navigators.  .  .  . 
I  heard  one  sermon  in  which  he  literally  "congratulated 
himself  on  having  so  eminent  and  distinguished  an  audience/' 
and  said  he  believed  "  there  was  no  body  of  Christians  on 
the  Continent  so  exemplary  in  their  religious  duties."  It  was 
really  quite  shocking  to  see  the  audience  retire  like  the  frog 
in  the  fable,  actually  bursting  with  spiritual  pride,  and  smiling 
out :  "  Beautiful  sermon ! "  One  of  the  last  converts  to 
Protestant  monasticism  is  no  less  a  person  than  Lady  Conyng- 
ham,  who  has  been  living  here  the  whole  winter,  in  such 
absolute  seclusion  that  hardly  ten  people  are  aware  of  her 
existence.  I  believe  there  never  was  a  year  when  Rome  was 

*  Mrs.  Starke,  author  of  a  "  Guide  to  Borne,"  had  excited  the  resent- 
ment of  the  Roman  shopkeepers  by  complaining  in  her  book  of  the  price 
of  turkeys. 


GREECE    AND    POETRY.  ]63 

so  crowded  with  foreigners  as  this  one.  When  I  arrived  no 
tolerable  lodging  of  any  kind  was  to  be  had,  and  the  prices  at 
the  hotels  were  much  dearer  than  in  St.  James's  Street.  The 
number  of  English  was  then  estimated  at  five  thousand ;  now 
the  crowd  and  the  exclusiveness  have  rather  transferred  them- 
selves to  Naples,  but  will,  I  suppose,  return  in  a  great  measure 
for  the  Holy  Week.  We  have  quite  a  Cambridge  coterie,  which 
makes  it  very  pleasant,  and  gives  the  place  a  sort  of  domesticity. 
If,  indeed,  it  is  like  heaven  in  nothing  else,  there  is  still  one 
point  of  resemblance — there  is  no  marrying  or  giving  in 
marriage. 

From  Rome  Milnes  went  to  Venice  to  join  his 
family  once  more.  He  was  cheered  by  the  manner  in 
which  his  volume  upon  Greece  had  been  received,  and 
his  literary  aspirations  were  evidently  quickened  by  its 
success,  though  in  a  characteristic  vein  he  wrote  to  one 
of  his  aunts  to  express  the  hope  that  his  book  was  not 
selling  at  a  "  vulgar  rate,"  but  was  achieving  popularity 
in  the  special  circle  to  which  he  had  desired  to  appeal. 

In  the  autumn,  instead  of  returning  to  England 
according  to  his  wont,  he  visited  Munich  and  the 
Salzkammergut,  meeting  Bunsen,  who  was  on  his  way 
from  Berlin  to  Rome,  and  other  friends  on  the  journey. 
The  death  of  the  Dowager  Lady  Gal  way,  and  shortly 
afterwards  that  of  his  mother  Mrs.  Milnes,  the  widow  of 
Mr.  R.  S.  Milnes,  had  made  a  great  change  in  the  posi- 
tion of  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes.  The  long  exile  to  which 
he  and  his  family  had  been  subjected  was  now  happily 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  they  were  preparing  to  resume 
their  place  in  English  society.  Greatly  as  Richard 
Milnes  had  profited  by  it  in  many  ways,  and  much  as  be 


154  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

had  learned  of  men  and  manners  during  his  sojourn  on 
the  Continent,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  necessity 
of  spending  so  large  a  part  of  his  time  abroad  had 
become  irksome  and  painful  to  him.  To  his  mother 
and  sister,  who  had  never  been  in  England  since  leaving 
it  in  1828,  their  exile  was,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  still 
more  oppressive,  and  they  looked  forward  with  delight 
to  the  prospect  of  an  early  return  to  their  native  land. 

I  need  not  say  [writes  Milnes  to  his  aunt,  February  3rd, 
1835]  with  what  pleasure  my  mother  and  Harriette  look 
forward  to  the  possibility  of  passing  some  months  of  this  year  in 
England ;  how  earnestly  they  look  forward  to  embracing  you 
all  again.  To  the  latter  the  charm  of  the  society  of  so  many 
people  she  loves  will  be  coupled  with  almost  the  zest  of  a  new 
existence.  If  she  only  amuses  as  much  as  she  will  be  amused, 
if  she  only  pleases  as  much  as  she  is  sure  to  be  pleased,  all  parties 
will  be  very  well  content. 

This  was  written  from  Florence,  to  which  place  the 
family  had  resorted  during  the  winter,  as  a  change  from 
their  past  experiences  in  Milan  and  Venice.  Concerning 
the  life  of  the  city  Milnes  writes  : — 

Papa  is  delighted  with  the  laissez  aller  of  the  whole  thing. 
No  one  interferes  with  you,  no  one  introduces  him  or  herself  to 
you,  no  one  wonders  that  you  do  this  or  do  not  do  that.  You 
may  live  and  die  as  domestically  and  in  as  thick  an  atmosphere 
of  indifference  as  in  London  itself.  Except  the  Sandfords,  who 
are  prodigal  of  all  sorts  of  attention,  we  have  not  a  single 
intimacy ;  and,  until  Stourton  arrived  yesterday,  whom  I  knew 
at  Venice,  I  had  nothing  but  bowing  or  literary  acquaintances. 
I  mustered  half  a  dozen  of  the  latter  to  dinner  yesterday,  among 
whom  was  Mr.  James,  the  author  of  "  all  the  novels."  .  .  . 
Lady  Lucy  Standisb/s  theatre  is  shut  up  for  the  moment,  she 


GREECE    AND   POETRY.  155 

being  in  a  delirious  fever.  When  she  comes  to  herself  she  gives 
a  representation  of  a  ballet  on  the  story  of  Bluebeard,  which  was 
given  to  a  very  select  audience  a  fortnight  ago — the  young  ladies 
pirouetting  with  a  vivacity  to  shame  Taglioni.  Indeed,  the 
only  difference  you  could  distinguish  was  the  substitution  of 
loose  drawers  for  tight  ones,  perhaps  not  a  sufficiently  strong  one 
to  reconcile  the  thing  exactly  to  Louisa's  notions  of  legitimate 
amusement.  Even  /  did  not  quite  like  to  see  young  English  girls 
trained  up  in  the  way  they  should  go  by  dancing  pas  seul  in  all 
possible  attitudes  to  a  promiscuous  audience. 

Among  the  people  of  note  who  were  in  Florence  this 
winter  was  Madame  Murat,  the  ex-Queen  of  Naples,  a 
fine-looking  and  agreeable  woman,  with  whom  all  the 
Milnes  family  became  acquainted.  Amidst  the  gaieties 
of  the  season  there  was  one  tragical  occurrence  which 
cast  a  gloom  over  all  who  witnessed  it.  A  young 
Englishman,  who  had  only  arrived  the  same  day,  was 
dancing  at  one  of  the  balls — where  at  that  time,  hy  the 
way,  more  English  people  than  Italians  were  to  be  seen. 
The  unfortunate  young  man  suffered  from  heart-disease, 
and  dropped  down  dead  on  the  floor  of  the  ball-room 
close  to  where  Milnes  was  standing ;  and  it  was  the 
latter  who  carried  the  dead  man's  partner  in  a  fainting 
state  from  the  ball-room. 

As  the  spring  advanced  Milnes  once  more  found 
himself  in  Borne,  seeing  much  of  his  friend  MacCarthy, 
as  well  as  of  Richard  Trench,  who  was  also  at  this  time 
staying  there. 

In  MacCarthy's  journal  there  occurs  this  passage  : — 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1835  I  was  one  day  returning  from  one 
of  the  gorgeous  ceremonies  of  Easter  at  St.  Peter's,  in  company 


156  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

with  Trench  and  Richard  Milnes.  As  we  were  sauntering 
slowly  down  the  Strada  Giulia,  along  the  Tiber,  Milnes  in  his 
red  militia  uniform  and  I  in  my  black  silk  academic  gown, 
Trench,  who  had  been  lingering  for  a  moment  behind,  came  up 
to  us  and  said  with  his  usual  deep-toned  solemnity'  of  voice  : — 
"  I  was  just  thinking  that  after  all  there  are  but  two  professions 
in  the  world  worth  professing — those  two,"  pointing  to  our 
dresses.  "  Yes,"  said  Milnes,  "  but  we  neither  of  us  belong  to 
them.  MacCarthy  is  as  much  a  churchman  as  I  am  a  soldier, 
that  is  to  say,  not  at  all."  I  waited  and  said  nothing.  I  think 
this  incident  worth  recording  as  indicative  of  our  respective 
characters,  and  the  character  of  the  age  in  which  we  live. 

In  the  summer  Milnes  returned  to  England,  pre- 
ceding his  family  by  a  few  months.  Among  the  letters 
which  welcomed  him  was  one  from  Julius  Hare,  August 
25th  :- 

I  am  glad  to  hear  of  you  in  England  again,  and  shall  rejoice 
to  know  that  you  have  given  up  vagabondising  and  are  thinking 
of  taking  a  rest  somewhere.  .  .  .  Sterling  you  will  find  at 
Knightsbridge  in  flourishing  health  and  full  of  energy  as  ever. 
He  will  tell  you  what  you  want  to  hear  about  your  Cambridge 
friends.  Of  Thirlwall  I  have  heard  nothing  for  months,  and 
know  .not  whether  he  has  gone  to  his  living  or  no. 

Hare's  hopes  regarding  Milnes  were  to  be  realised. 
Although  he  travelled  much  throughout  his  life,  and 
subsequently  took  longer  journeys  than  any  he  had 
taken  down  to  this  period,  yet  his  return  to  England  in 
1835  might  be  said  to  mark  the  close  of  what  his  friend 
described  as  his  vagabondising  days.  Henceforth  when 
he  was  on  the  Continent,  he  knew  it  rather  as  a  traveller 
than  as  a  sojourner,  and  though  he  never  lost  his  keen 
interest  in  the  political  affairs  of  Europe — an  interest 


GREECE   AND    POETRY.  157 

stimulated  by  his  own  special  knowledge  of  the  great 
questions  of  Continental  policy — it  was  to  English 
politics  and  English  life  that  from  this  time  forward 
he  devoted  the  greater  part  of  his  thought  and  time. 

His  sojourn  on  the  Continent  left,  however,  its  indeli- 
ble traces  upon  his  mind  and  character  by  stamping  both 
with  that  catholicity  of  taste  which  distinguished  him 
above  most,  if  not  indeed  above  all,  his  contemporaries. 
To  life  and  society  in  England  he  brought  a  inind 
trained  and  informed  by  close  association  with  some  of 
the  most  eminent  men  in  Europe,  and  which  had  been 
familiarised  with  modes  of  thought  and  schools  of 
philosophy  essentially  foreign  to  our  national  ideas. 

One  of  the  first  letters  which  he  received  after  com- 
ing to  England  in  this  summer  of  1835  was  one  from 
Mr.  Hallarn  telling  him  how  he  had  retained  a  copy  of 
his  son's  "  Remains, "  which  had  been  printed  for 
private  circulation  in  the  previous  year,  for  him. 

It  is  the  last  that  I  have  to  give  [said  the  bereaved  father], 
for  the  applications  have  been  many,  while  in  general  I  have 
been  forced  to  refuse.  On  every  account  I  felt  that  the  voice 
of  his  inmost  heart  was  not  for  the  careless  ear  of  the  public. 

Nobody  who  knew  Milnes  ever  hesitated  to  ask  a 
favour  of  him,  and  few  who  did  so  met  with  a  refusal. 
Many  stories  have  indeed  been  told  of  cases  in  which  he 
has  turned  away  somewhat  brusquely  from  the  petitions 
of  his  friends;  but  those  who  are  best  acquainted  with  the 
story  of  his  life  know  that  in  hardly  one  of  these  cases 
was  his  refusal  final.  No  sooner  had  he  established 
himself  in  England  than  the  friends  he  had  left  behind 


158  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

in  Italy  began  to  load  him  with  commissions  on  their 
behalf.  Among  these  was  his  valued  acquaintance 
M.  Rio,  who  was  just  at  that  moment  producing  the 
first  volume  of  his  work  on  "  Christian  Art,"  and  who 
lost  no  time  in  entrusting  his  interests  in  England,  so 
far  as  arrangements  for  the  sale  of  the  book  were  con- 
cerned, to  Milnes.  The  latter  spent  much  time  during 
the  autumn  in  completing  those  arrangements  and  in 
doing  his  best  to  ensure  for  M.  Elo's  work  a  fitting 
reception  by  the  English  public.  His  parents  and 
sister  took  up  their  abode  at  the  close  of  the  year  in  the 
family  house  at  Bawtry,  and  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes 
forthwith  resumed  that  life  of  an  English  country 
gentleman  which  he  had  long  before  declared  to  be  the 
most  enviable  that  any  man  could  lead.  Milnes  was 
too  eager  to  share  in  this  life  to  accept  a  flattering  offer 
which  he  received  from  Montalembert  to  spend  the 
winter  in  travelling  with  him  in  the  East.  Before 
going  to  Bawtry  for  Christmas,  however,  he  took  a  short 
tour  in  Ireland  in  the  company  of  his  friend  Stafford 
O'Brien,  from  whose  father's  house  he  writes  as  follows 
to  C.  J.  MacCarthy  : — 

R.  M.  M.  to   C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Blatherwycke,  Nov.  11,  1835. 
DEAR  FRIEND, — This  letter  is  O'Brien's,  and  my  part  of  it 

a  mere ;  but  I  must  thank  you  with  my  own  mouth  for 

your  welcome  one.  I  wrote  querulously  to  Wiseman  last  week, 
fidgeting  that  I  had  not  heard  from  you.  1  left  the  note  in 
Golden  Square,  where  they  told  me  he  was  in  Ireland.  I  hope, 
however,  he  will  be  returned  by  this  time,  and  that  I  shall  see 


OEEEOE   AND    POETRY.  159 

him  before  he  leaves  England.  Trench's  poems  have  reached  a 
second  edition,  owing  principally  to  a  puff  in  Blackwood.  He 
says  he  is  afraid  that  it  is  the  religious  world  that  have  bought 
them,  not  the  poetical.  He  has  given  Wiseman  a  copy  for  you. 
I  hear  you  have  some  bold  English  at  Rome  to  defy  the  green 
insects ;  amongst  them,  I  believe,  the  Francis  Egertons  (he,  you 
know,  who  did  Faust).  They  are  very  pleasant,  and  I  should 
think  it  worth  while  for  you  to  get  a  letter  to  them  from  Mrs. 
Cunliffe.  I  do  not  think  you  will  find  much  likeable  in  Mrs. 
B ,  though  nothing  the  contrary.  Her  husband  is  detest- 
able for  coldness,  avarice,  &c.  &c.  Landor,  they  tell  me,  does 
not  intend  to  return,  but  leaves  his  children  to  his  wife  and  the 
devil,  and  intends  to  fix  himself  in  some  village  in  England 
where  he  may  live  and  die  alone.  I  have  been  the  most  emmar- 
velled  [sic]  in  England  by  two  things,  the  intelligence  and 
information  of  the  upper  part  of  the  middle  class  and  the  beauty 
of  the  women  of  the  higher.  I  am  going  about  this  winter  an 
English  scatterling,  as  I  have  been  a  foreign  one,  for  I  wish  to 
be  as  much  as  possible  with  my  sister,  and  she  is  to  visit  every 
relation  she  has  on  earth.  Still  direct  to  me  at  Bawtry.  There 
is  a  very  great  talking  and  thinking  about  Catholicism  in  Eng- 
land. The  Protestant  missionary  fools  have  excited  a  sort  of 
bull-dog  enthusiasm  among  the  Dissenters  especially,  but  have 
set  intelligent  people  considering,  which,  I  do  not  doubt,  will  pro- 
duce much  good.  I  have  a  beautiful  letter  from  Windischmann, 
telling  me  he  is  just  going  into  orders  and  is  to  have  a  cure  in 
the  mountains  near  Munich.  O'B.  is  become  graver  and  more 
practical,  but  none  the  worse  for  that ;  a  good  faith  and  good 
animal  spirits  together  will  always  keep  a  man  well  up.  Would 
that  we  had  them  both  ! 

R.  M.  M. 

On  the  same  day  O'Brien  wrote  also  to  MacCarthy, 
and  in  his  letter  opened  his  heart  with  the  frankness  of 
youth  to  his  friend  on  the  subject  of  Milnes's  state  of 
mind.  This,  he  declared,  caused  him  great  grief;  for 


160  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    SOUGHTON. 

whilst  most  of  them  had  now  got  to  some  fixedness  of 
faith,  Milnes  still  remained  amongst  speculations  and 
paradoxes,  which  gave  no  peace  to  his  own  mind  and 
deprived  him  of  any  influence  over  that  of  others, 
"  wasting  his  fine  talents  and  good  heart  on  things  that 
win  him  neither  respect  nor  love."  Properly  to  under- 
stand this  somewhat  severe  condemnation,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  O'Brien  had  for  some  time  enter- 
tained the  hope  of  seeing  Milnes  brought  into  the  fold 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  That  he  had  himself  enter- 
tained thoughts  of  this  step  has  already  been  stated, 
and  the  disappointment  of  his  friend  was  great,  as  he 
saw  time  pass  without  bringing  the  desired  object 
nearer  to  its  attainment.  It  was  somewhat  curious, 
though  entirely  characteristic  of  the  man,  that  Milnes, 
who  in  his  college  days  .had  been  an  earnest  listener  to 
the  preaching  of  Edward  Irving,  and  who  was  still  the 
friend  of  Sterling  and  Maurice,  should  also  be  the 
associate  and  confidant  of  those  who  were  now  paving 
the  way  for  that  great  revival  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith  in  England  which  the  last  half-century  has 
witnessed.  Wiseman,  not  yet  a  bishop,  had  just 
arrived  in  England,  and  on  the  very  morrow  of  his 
return  to  this  country  he  had  written  as  follows  to 
Milnes : — 

Dr.   Wiseman  to  R.  M.  M. 

85,  Golden  Square,  London,  September  Ylth,  1835. 
MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Yesterday  upon  my  arrival  in  Babylon 
I  found  your  note,  to  which  I  forthwith  reply.     I  had  been 
inquiring  wherever  I   had   hopes  of  being  able  to  learn  your 


GREECE   AND    POETRY.  161 

whereabouts,  and  had  only  a  short  time  before  learned  from 
Charles  [MacCarthy]  that  you  were  still  lingering  about  Italy. 
I  had  thus  been  prevented  from  forwarding-  to  you  the  ac- 
companying long  letter  from  the  dearest  of  creatures,  Fritz 
Windischmann,  whose  company  I  was  delighted  to  enjoy  during 
my  short  residence  at  Munich.  Perhaps,  however,  you  may 
have  seen  him  since.  My  projects  are  as  follows  :  in  a  few 
days,  after  I  have  made  some  further  arrangements  with  the 
"  calumas  "  about  my  publication,  I  set  out  on  a  species  of  tour, 
or  rather  progress,  through  England  and  Ireland,  having  made 
a  resolution  never  to  sleep  in  an  inn  or  hostelry  the  whole  way ; 
but  I  intend  to  quarter  myself  upon  such  of  the  nobility  or 
gentry  of  these  realms  as  can  sufficiently  appreciate  such  an 
honour.  My  first  station  will  be  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Birmingham,  and  other  Midland  Cyclopean  towns,  where  I  have 
several  short  calls  to  make.  Thence  I  proceed  to  the  princely 
towers  and  enchanted  gardens  of  Alton,  and  so  forward  to  Sir 
E.  Vavasour's,  where  if  you  are  in  the  neighbourhood  I  hope 
I  may  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you.  If  you  think  this 
practicable,  and  any  preliminary  arrangements  are  necessary, 
you  could  let  me  know  by  a  few  lines  under  cover  to  Lord 
Shrewsbury  at  Alton,  Ashbourne.  I  have  but  little  news 
from  Italy.  From  Rome,  by  some  unaccountable  fatality, 
literally  none.  MacCarthy  writes  in  his  usual  low  spirits,  which 
I  hope  have  more  of  the  sentimental  than  the  real.  However, 
he  was  looking  with  anxiousness  towards  the  striding  march  of 
the  cholera  Sienawards.  Twice  he  had  been  obliged  to  call  in 
the  physicians  in  the  dead  of  the  night  to  cure  a  very  ominous 
affection.  This  makes  me  feel  uneasy;  and  yet  there  is  no 
moving,  for  all  ingress  is  forbidden  into  the  Pope's  States,  and 
Florence  is  dreadfully  infected.  To-day  I  shall  go  to  call  on 
his  mother,  who  is  a  saint  upon  earth.  If  you  receive  better 
news,  pray  let  me  have  them. 

Ever  yours  very  faithfully, 

N.  WISEMAN. 


162  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Wiseman,  as  Lord  Houghton  himself  has  told  in 
his  "  Monographs,"  achieved  a  distinct  social  success  in 
England  in  those  days,  before  the  Papal  aggression  had 
stirred  British  feeling  and  British  prejudice  to  their 
lowest  depths.  The  fact  that  he  and  Milnes  were 
already  on  terms  of  intimacy  was  of  advantage  to  both 
in  the  immediate  future. 

Milnes  spent  his  Christmas  at  Bawtry,  renewing  his 
acquaintance  with  the  connections  and  friends  of  the 
family ;  and  in  January,  1836,  he  accompanied  his 
father  and  mother  to  Fryston,  which  had  now  become 
the  property  of  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  through  the 
death  of  his  mother.  From  this  time  forward  it  became 
the  family  seat.  One  old  college  friend  had  recently 
settled  in  Yorkshire,  and  was  therefore  available  as  a 
recipient  of  those  hospitalities  which  were  traditional  at 
Fryston.  This  was  Connop  Thirlwall,  who  had  accepted 
the  living  of  Kirby  Underdale,  which  he  held  for  a 
brief  period  on  his  way  to  the  bench  of  bishops.  With 
Thirlwall,  Milnes  kept  up  a  regular  correspondence,  the 
interest  of  which  is  as  fresh  to-day  as  at  the  time  when 
the  letters  were  written.  Space  forbids  that  I  should 
even  attempt  to  do  justice  to  it,  but  I  may  make  a 
citation  from  one  letter,  if  only  to  show  how  the  learned 
author  of  the  History  of  Greece  bore  himself  in  the 
solitude  of  his  Yorkshire  rectory. 

Connop  Thirlwall  to  JR.  M.  M. 
Kirby  Underdale,  Pocklington,  Dec.  28^,  1 835. 
MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  hope  you  will  not  suppose,  because  I 
wished  to  see  you  ten  days  or  a  fortnight  ago,  that  I  am  the  less 


GREECE    AND   POETRY.  163 

desirous  of  having  your  company  whenever  you  are  able  to  come 
to  me ;  but,  as  the  termination  of  one  of  the  semestrian  stages  of 
my  historical  career  is  a  matter  of  great  self-gratulation  to  me,  it 
is  an  occasion  when  the  presence  of  a  friend  is  peculiarly  season- 
able. But  whenever  you  come  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  old 
acquaintance  by  leaving  you  to  your  own  devices  and  pursuing  my 
own  for  a  good  part  of  the  morning.  If  I  have  any  other  reason 
for  regretting  the  delay  of  your  visit,  it  is  that  it  might  have 
afforded  me  a  means  of  eluding  one  or  two  engagements,  for  the 
barbarians  among  whom  I  am  living  think  that  they  show  me  no 
little  kindness  when  just  about  the  time  that  I  should  be  coming 
in  from  an  afternoon's  walk  they  make  me  set  out  on  a  journey 
of  perhaps  seven  or  eight  miles  to  dine  with  what  appetite  I  may 
while  my  mind  is  busied  with  the  anticipation  of  the  Z/OOTO?  and 
the  recollection  of  the  books  and  papers  which  I  have  left  on  my 
table.  The  most  rational  person  I  know  here  is  my  neighbour 
the  Captain.  He  never  goes  out  to  dinner,  and  therefore  never 
expects  to  receive  me.  He  has,  however,  breakfasted  with  me 
once  or  twice  ;  which  reminds  me  of  a  little  incident  worth  men- 
tioning for  the  sake  of  the  psychological  instruction  it  conveys. 
I  believe  I  mentioned  to  you  that  the  Captain  is  celebrated  for 
his  stories,  in  a  way  which  might  keep  the  most  unsuspicious 
hearer  on  his  guard  against  receiving  them  with  implicit  faith. 
I  need  not  observe  that  I  am  by  character  and  habit  inclined 
rather  to  scepticism  than  to  credulity,  and  that  my  regular 
employment,  which  lies  so  much  in  sifting  evidence,  comparing 
opinions,  tracing  unfounded  rumours  to  their  source,  and  so  forth, 
might  be  expected  to  have  sharpened  my  sagacity  so  as  to  secure 
me  from  the  danger  of  being  grossly  imposed  upon  by  a  narrative, 
even  if  related  on  good  authority,  when  it  is  intrinsically  impro- 
bable. These  things  premised,  I  proceed  to  say  that  the  last 
time  the  Captain  breakfasted  with  me,  which  was  a  week  ago,  he 
entertained  me  with  a  description  of  the  taking  of  a  whale,  which 
he  had  witnessed  while  he  had  the  command  of  a  ship  somewhere 
on  the  coast  of  Africa.  The  most  picturesque  feature  in  the 
description  was  that  the  monster  whale,  which  was  upwards  of 


164  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUOHTON. 

ninety  feet  long1,  having  been  struck,  leapt  three  times  its  length 
out  of  the  water.  A  little  appendix  to  this  tale  was  that  the 
morning  after  this  adventure  the  Captain  was  informed  that  the 
whalers,  in  return  for  some  assistance  which  he  had  given  them, 
had  sent  him  a  calf  found  in  the  uterus  of  the  whale.  The 
Captain  ordered  it  to  he  hung  up,  but  being  asked  to  what  part 
of  his  ship  he  would  have  such  an  appendage"  fastened,  he  went 
out  to  view  the  creature,  which  was  floating  by  the  side  of  the 
ship,  and  found  that,  embryo  as  it  was,  it  measured  twenty-five 
feet !  !  !  All  this,  I  declare,  I  received  not  with  polite  acqui- 
escence, but  with  most  sincere  and  admiring  conviction  of  its 
literal  truth ;  and  a  day  or  two  after,  happening  to  have  a  friend 
on  a  short  visit  to  me,  an  intelligent  man  though  a  bit  of  a 
poet,  I  regaled  him  with  the  Captain's  story  as  a  remarkable 
fact.  He  took  it  in  with  as  much  simplicity  and  earnestness  as  I 
had,  but  the  next  day  as  we  were  walking  out  together  in  a 
clear  frosty  morning  he  asked  me  in  a  delicate  manner  whether 
the  Captain's  reputation  for  accuracy  was  so  wholly  unimpeach- 
able that  nobody  who  heard  him  could  question  the  exact  truth 
of  any  of  his  stories.  It  turned  out  that  we  had  both  been 
reflecting  on  the  subject,  and  the  scales  having  suddenly  dropped 
from  our  eyes,  both  viewed  the  matter  in  its  true  light  as  a  por- 
tentous bounce.  This,  I  think,  must  be  one  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  the  Captain  ever  achieved.  Pray  let  me  hear  from  you 
as  soon  as  you  are  able  to  say  when  you  can  come  to,  my  dear 
Milnes,  Yours  most  truly, 

C.  THIRLWALL. 

Among  the  amusements  at  Fryston  during  this 
first  winter  of  their  home  life  in  England  were  the 
charades,  in  which  Milnes  and  his  sister  took  so  much 
interest.  One  which  illustrated  the  principal  scenes 
in  "  Nicholas  Nickleby,"  which  had  just  appeared, 
gained  special  popularity.  In  the  performance  Stafford 
O'Brien  played  Nicholas,  whilst  Connop  Thirl  wall  made 


GREECE    AND   POETRY.  165 

an  inimitable  Squeers,  whose  antics  were  the  delight 
not  only  of  the  residents  in  the  house,  but  of  the 
village  children  whom  O'Brien  swept  into  the  drawing- 
room  with  an  entire  disregard  of  the  fitness  of  their 
attire  for  the  scene  into  which  they  were  thus  un- 
ceremoniously ushered. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ENTRANCE    UPON    LONDON    LIFE. 

Begins  his  London  Career — Society  in  1836 — Milnes's  Italian  Manners — "  The 
Beating  of  my  own  Heart" — "The  Tribute" — Correspondence  with 
Tennyson — Lansdowne,  Holland,  and  Gore  Houses — Rogers's  Breakfasts — 
The  Art  of  Conversation — Takes  Chambers  in  Pall  Mall — Carlyle — Illness 
of  Miss  Milnes — W.  E.  Gladstone — Milnes  returned  to  Parliament — 
Disraeli's  Maiden  Speech — Publishes  Two  Volumes  of  Poetry — Correspond- 
ence with  Sydney  Smith. 

IN  the  spring  of  1836,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milnes  took  a  house 
for  the  season  in  South  Street,  Hyde  Park.  Mr.  Milnes 
was  already  beginning  to  suffer  from  a  certain  lethargy 
of  disposition,  which  although  it  never  dimmed  his 
mental  faculties,  deadened  to  no  small  degree  his  per- 
sonal interest  in  that  society  in  which  in  his  youth  he  had 
been  so  conspicuous  a  figure.  He  no  longer  apparently 
cared  to  make  friends  for  himself;  but  in  spite  of  their 
marked  difference  of  temperament,  a  real  affection  had 
always  existed  between  him  and  his  son.  He  still  en- 
tertained the  hope  that  the  latter  would  make  a  great 
name  in  English  politics,  and  though  he  had  been  dis- 
appointed by  the  results  of  his  University  career,  and 
had  little  sympathy  with  his  literary  tastes  and  pursuits, 
he  was  fully  conscious  of  his  brilliant  abilities,  and 
anxious  to  render  him  all  the  aid  he  could  in  his  social 
career.  The  father  accordingly,  though  he  no  longer 
cared  for  society  on  his  own  account,  laid  himself  out 


ENTRANCE    UPON  LONDON  LIFE.  167 

to  make  his  house  pleasant  to  the  friends  of  his  son;  and 
that  he  succeeded  in  doing  so  is  proved  by  many  a  corn- 
temporary  record.  Not  merely  in  his  town  house,  but 
at  Fryston,  he  was  eager  to  bestow  the  hospitality  in 
which  he  delighted  upon  Richard's  friends.  A  story  is 
told  of  the  first  visit  of  Thackeray  to  Fryston,  which 
throws  light  upon  the  relations  of  father  and  son,  and 
upon  the  esteem  in  which  the  former  was  held  by  the 
friends  of  the  latter.  When  Thackeray  was  introduced 
to  the  older  man,  who  still  retained  the  courtly  manner 
of  his  youth,  Mr.  Milnes  having  ascertained  that  his 
guest  smoked,  said :  "  Pray  consider  yourself  at  liberty, 
Mr.  Thackeray,  to  smoke  in  any  room  in  this  house 
except  my  son's.  I  am  sorry  to  say  he  does  not  allow 
it."  "Richard,  my  boy,"  exclaimed  the  famous  novelist, 
slapping  his  friend  on  the  back,  "  what  a  splendid  father 
has  been  thrown  away  upon  you  !  "  As  it  has  been  my 
duty  to  say  something  of  the  serious  differences  of 
opinion  between  the  two  men,  it  is  only  right  to  allow 
their  relationship  towards  each  other  to  be  seen  in  this 
pleasanter  light. 

At  South  Street,  accordingly,  in  that  season  of  1836, 
Richard  Monckton  Milnes  may  be  said  to  have  been 
launched  on  that  social  career  in  England  in  which  he 
achieved  an  almost  unique  distinction.  He  was  young, 
he  was  gifted,  he  had  already  gained  a  certain  measure 
of  repute  as  a  poet  and  a  critic.  He  had  a  circle  of 
friends,  large,  distinguished,  and  enthusiastic,  who 
looked  for  great  things  from  him  in  the  future.  The 
removal  of  the  pecuniary  difficulties  which  had  weighed 


168  THE    LIFE    OF  LOED    HOUGHTON. 

upon  his  youth  owing  to  the  honourable  conduct  of  his 
father,  had  placed  him  in  a  condition  of  ease  and  com- 
fort as  far  as  money  matters  were  concerned,  whilst  the 
well-established  social  position  of  his  father's  family, 
and  his  kinship  on  his  mother's  side  to  more  than  one 
ancient  house,  opened  for  him  the  most  exclusive  circles 
of  the  day.  Let  us  remember,  in  addition,  how  his  pro- 
longed residence  abroad  had  made  him  familiar  with 
some  of  the  best  sets  in  Continental  society,  and  we  shall 
understand  how  brilliant  was  the  prospect  which  lay  be- 
fore him,  when  he  thus  entered  upon  his  life  in  London. 
English  society  lay  all  before  him  where  to  choose,  as 
both  before  and  since  it  has  lain  before  many  another 
young  man  equally  well  born,  equally  well  endowed 
by  fortune,  and  perhaps  not  greatly  inferior  to  him  in 
mental  powers.  Nothing  would  have  been  easier,  no- 
thing, alas !  more  natural,  than  for  a  young  man  thus 
placed,  possessing  that  love  of  society  which  unquestion- 
ably distinguished  Milnes,  to  fall  into  those  habits  of 
the  mere  pleasure-seeker  which  have  so  often,  blighted 
the  most  promising  careers  in  the  ranks  of  the  English 
upper  classes. 

Milnes's  temperament  must  have  strengthened  the 
temptation  to  fall  into  these  ways,  so  common  with 
young  men  of  his  rank ;  but  allied  to  his  bright  intelli- 
gence, and  easy-going  and  self-indulgent  disposition, 
there  was  that  in  him  which  enabled  him  to  take  a 
higher  and  a  nobler  line  than  that  of  the  mere  pleasure- 
seeker.  In  his  heart  there  was  the  real  fire  of  the  poet. 
There  was  in  it,  too,  that  sympathy  with  noble  deeds 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON  LIFE.  169 

and  noble  thoughts,  which  is  perhaps,  humanly  speak- 
ing, the  strongest  of  all  the  defences  of  the  soul,  when 
it  is  assailed  by  the  seductions  of  a  mere  life  of  pleasure. 
However  powerful  to  one  of  Milnes's  temperament 
might  be  the  temptations  which  now  beset  his  path,  he 
had  too  great  a  reverence  for  what  was  good  and  pure 
and  true,  too  consuming  a  desire  to  hold  his  own  with 
the  best  intellects  of  his  time,  and  above  all,  too  deep  a 
sympathy  with  the  suffering  and  the  wronged  to  allow 
him  to  fall  a  victim  to  these  temptations.  But  he  was 
no  anchorite ;  on  the  contrary,  even  before  this  period 
of  his  life  had  been  reached,  his  friends  spoke  of  him  as 
an  Epicurean  ;  fond  of  the  good  things  of  this  life  in  the 
common  sense  of  the  term,  but  happily  also  fond  of  the 
best  things  of  this  life  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  words. 
From  the  first,  therefore,  after  he  had  pitched  his  tent  in 
the  great  wilderness  of  London,  he  seems  to  have  made 
it  his  mission  to  combine  as  far  as  might  be  the  two 
worlds  with  which  by  temperament  he  sympathised — 
the  world  of  pleasure  and  the  world  of  intellect.  How 
he  succeeded  was  known  to  all  his  contemporaries  more 
fully  perhaps  than  it  can  be  set  forth  in  these  pages, 
though  the  reader  as  he  proceeds  will  have  many  a  glimpse 
of  these  two  sides  of  Milnes's  character,  which  no  man 
combined  so  well  as  he  did.  He  will  see  him  moving, 
the  gayest  of  the  gay,  in  the  brightest  and  airiest  of 
social  circles,  where  pleasure  is  apparently  the  one  end 
aimed  at,  and  he  will  see  him  also  taking  his  part  not 
merely  in  those  Platonic  intellectual  exercises  which  are 
themselves  but  a  form  of  self-indulgence,  but  in  real  and 


170  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

earnest  efforts  to  improve  the  conditions  of  English 
society,  and  especially  of  that  section  of  the  community 
which  lies  outside  the  social  pale. 

Above  all,  the  subsequent  pictures  of  Richard 
Milnes's  life,  if  they  are  sketched  aright,  will  reveal  to 
the  reader  one  of  the  kindest  hearts  that  ever  beat  in 
human  breast;  a  heart  that  in  the  secrecy  of  its  own 
chamber  knew  no  pleasure  so  great  as  that  of  alleviating 
the  distress  of  others.  Something  was  known  during 
Milnes's  own  lifetime  of  the  extent  to  which  his  "  hand 
and  heart,  both  open  and  both  free,"  were  at  the  service 
of  men  of  genius  in  distress ;  but  what  is  known  is  a 
mere  fraction  of  that  which  could  be  told  if  the  tale 
were  to  be  made  complete.  Milnes,  with  his  love  of 
paradox,  his  at  times  almost  startling  self-assertiveness, 
his  impulsive  temper  and  acute  sensitiveness,  was  not  a 
man  who  could  go  through  the  world  without  making 
enemies ;  but  the  bitterest  of  these,  if  they  could  have 
known  all  the  truth  regarding  those  deeds  of  kindness 
which  he  wrought  in  silence  and  in  secrecy  from  day 
to  day,  would  at  least  have  admitted  that  he  had  in 
his  breast  that  love  of  his  fellow-men,  pure,  and  real 
and  inexhaustible,  which  is  the  most  precious  of  all  the 
gifts  that  can  be  conferred  upon  the  human  soul. 

Mrs.  Milnes  records  in  her  journal  that  the  dinner- 
parties which  they  gave  in  the  house  in  South  Street, 
during  this  season  of  1836,  were  chiefly  to  the  friends 
of  her  son,  "some  of  them  being  very  agreeable  and 
literary  " — amongst  others,  Wordsworth  and  Samuel 
Rogers.  It  may  be  well  here  to  mention  briefly  the 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  171 

leading  figures  in  the  political  and  literary  world  in  that 
summer  of  1836.  In  prose  literature  the  great  name  of 
Scott  was  still  a  living  factor,  though  the  author  of 
the  Waverley  Novels  had  been  himself  four  years  in  his 
grave.  The  influence  of  Byron  was  on  the  wane,  that 
of  Shelley  and  of  Keats  was  beginning  to  be  felt.  Men 
were  also  beginning  dimly  to  realise  the  fact  that  in 
Wordsworth  they  had  a  poet  who  was  destined  to  add 
to  the  imperishable  treasures  of  our  English  literature. 
But,  apart  from  Wordsworth,  no  really  great  name  was 
at  that  time  known  in  English  poetry.  Moore,  Southey, 
Rogers,  Campbell,  were  all  still  living ;  and  to  the  world 
at  large  they,  rather  than  Wordsworth,  were  the  ac- 
cepted representatives  of  English  verse.  If  we  except 
Wordsworth,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  particular  period 
was  one  in  which  few  men  of  the  highest  literary  fame 
were  at  their  zenith.  The  greatest  names  belonged  to 
those  recently  dead  or  to  those  who  were  past  their 
powers.  But  almost  contemporaneously  with  Milnes's 
entrance  upon  his  social  life  in  London,  new  stars  were 
making  their  appearance  above  the  horizon.  Two  years 
before  the  house  in  South  Street  was  taken,  Thomas 
Carlyle,  abandoning  the  solitudes  of  Craigenputtoch, 
and  taking  up  his  abode  in  Cheyne  Row,  had  set  himself 
to  the  task  of  writing  the  "  French  Revolution ;  "  and 
among  the  best  informed  in  society  and  in  literary 
circles  much  was  already  being  said  of  Milnes's  young 
fellow-collegian,  Alfred  Tennyson,  and  of  the  promise 
which  his  genius  held  out  to  English  poetry. 

Through  Charles    Buller,    Milnes  early   made   the 


172  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

acquaintance  of  Carlyle.  Mr.  Froude  gives  the  year  1839 
as  that  in  which  the  friendship  between  the  two  men 
began,  but  in  this  he  is  unquestionably  wrong,  and  there 
is  little  doubt  that  very  soon  after  Milnes  became  a 
regular  resident  in  London  he  was  brought  into  contact 
with  the  great  genius  for  whose  teaching  he  had  so 
profound  an  admiration,  and  for  whom  personally  he 
entertained  so  warm  an  affection.  To  some  it  may  seem 
to  be  a  matter  scarcely  worth  noticing,  but  the  biographer 
of  Lord  Houghton  cannot  pass  over  in  silence  the  fact 
that  in  all  that  outpouring  of  Carlyle  literature  which 
we  have  had  since  the  death  of  the  author  of  "  Sartor 
Resartus,"  not  a  word  is  to  be  found  in  any  one  of 
Carlyle's  letters  with  regard  to  Richard  Milnes  which 
is  not  pleasant  and  appreciative  in  its  character.  Almost 
alone  among  the  men  of  his  generation  he  seems  to  have 
inspired  the  great  writer  with  a  feeling  of  unmixed 
regard  and  friendship,  and  accordingly  almost  alone 
amongst  them  he  escapes  that  scathing  satire  which  was 
at  times  poured  forth  so  freely  by  Carlyle  upon  his  con- 
temporaries. The  friend  of  Carlyle  and  Tennyson  was 
of  course  certain  of  a  place  in  the  literary  society  of  the 
day ;  but  when  we  remember  that  Milnes  was  in  addi- 
tion one  of  the  favourite  pupils  and  the  lifelong  friend 
of  Connop  Thirlwall ;  that  Landor  not  only  cherished 
for  him  a  warm  personal  affection,  but  had  so  great  an 
admiration  for  his  genius  that  he  was  wont  to  describe 
him  as  the  first  English  poet  of  his  time;  and  that  ever 
since  his  Cambridge  days  he  had  been  the  associate  of 
Sterling  and  Maurice,  we  get  some  idea  of  the  advantages 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  173 

under  which  he  entered  upon  his  social  career  in  London. 
Young  as  he  was,  he  had  already  formed  an  extraordinary 
number  of  friendships  with  worthy  and  distinguished 
men.  Among  those  were  the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  Hallam 
the  historian,  Campbell,  Moore,  and  Lockhart,  as  well  as 
a  great  number  of  the  leading  politicians  and  men  of 
fashion  of  the  time.  Above  all,  he  had  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  being  on  terms  of  the  closest  intimacy 
with  the  members  of  that  brilliant  band  of  Trinity 
students  of  whom  we  have  already  seen  something  in 
these  pages. 

One  can  hardly  wonder,  remembering  the  social 
gifts  by  which  he  was  to  the  last  distinguished,  that 
Milnes's  career  in  London  was,  from  the  very  com- 
mencement, a  brilliant  success ;  and  yet  it  is  only  fair 
to  state  that  he  laboured  under  certain  serious  dis- 
advantages, and  had  to  overcome  prejudices  which  in 
some  cases  were  of  no  common  strength.  It  is  im- 
possible to  read  the  social  records  of  the  early  days  of 
the  present  reign,  without  seeing  that  in  many  quarters 
a  violent  antipathy  was  entertained  towards  the  new- 
comer in  the  great  arena  of  London.  In  most"  cases, 
that  antipathy  may  safely  be  ascribed  either  to  the 
jealousy  or  the  stupidity  of  those  who  displayed  it ;  but 
there  were  other  cases  in  which  no  such  explanation  can 
be  offered  or  accepted.  With  regard  to  these  the  truth 
unquestionably  was  that  Milnes  gave  offence  where  he 
meant  none,  by  a  bearing  which  was  founded  upon  the 
traditions  and  the  manners  of  Continental  life  rather  than 
upon  those  which  had  hitherto  ruled  in  the  capital  of 


174  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

England.  He  had  not  lived  so  much  in  Italy  without 
acquiring  a  great  deal  of  that  vivacity  of  manner  and 
naive  frankness  in  conversation  which  are  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  Italian  at  home.  Nor  could  a  man  of 
his  disposition  have  lived  so  much  in  great  centres  of 
cultured  life,  like  Rome  and  Venice,  without  having 
acquired  more  of  the  air  of  the  man  of  the  world  than 
was  ordinarily  to  be  found  in  one  of  his  years.  There 
was  unquestionably  a  strong  disposition  in  the  first 
instance  on  the  part  of  some,  who  afterwards  were 
amongst  those  most  fully  alive  to  the  genuine  merits 
of  his  character,  to  look  upon  young  Richard  Milnes 
when  he  took  his  place  in  London  society,  and  began 
his  career  as  the  friend  and  host  of  men  of  genius  and 
distinction,  as  an  interloper,  who  was  seeking  to  intro- 
duce foreign  ways  and  foreign  fashions  into  the  highly 
conservative  fields  of  English  life.  No  prejudices  of 
this  kind,  however,  could  interfere  with  Milnes's  social 
success,  and  even  before  the  close  of  that  season  of  1836 
— a  season  memorable  in  the  annals  of  society  as  that 
which  witnessed  the  great  trial  of  which  Mrs  Norton 
was  the  unhappy  subject — it  is  evident  from  contem- 
poraneous chronicles  that  Richard  Milnes  had  secured  a 
place  of  favour  in  the  best  social  circles  in  London. 
Twelve  months  later,  when  he  had  secured  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  had  become  the  occupant 
of  the  rooms  at  No.  26,  Pall  Mall,  which  were  during 
many  years  the  scene  of  his  London  hospitalities,  his 
position  had  of  course  been  thoroughly  established,  and 
he  was  generally  regarded  as  one  of  the  important 


ENTRAXGE    UPON  LONDON-   LIFE.  176 

figures  in   society.     Bftt  even  in   1836,  when  he  was 
still  living  under  his  father's  roof,  he  seems  to  have 

o 

made  a  conquest  of  the  social  world.  It  was  after  a 
season  which  had  been  full  of  novel  enjoyment  to  him, 
a  time  in  which  he  had  not  only  renewed  his  acquaint- 
ance with  many  old  friends  of  his  college  days,  hut 
made  innumerable  new  friendships,  some  of  which  were 
destined  to  last  throughout  his  life,  that  he  paid  another 
visit  to  Ireland,  where  he  was  again  received  with 
characteristic  hospitality,  alike  by  friends  and  by 
strangers.  It  was  years  afterwards  that  he  told  the 
present  writer  an  interesting  story  in  connection  with 
this  visit.  He  was  driving,  he  said,  to  the  house  of  his 
friends  the  O'Briens  in  one  of  the  national  cars,  and  as 
the  horse's  feet  beat  upon  the  road,  they  seemed  to 
hammer  out  in  his  own  head  certain  rhythmical  ideas, 
which  quickly  formed  themselves  into  rhyme.  By  the 
time  he  had  reached  Cratloe  the  little  poem  was  com- 
plete, and  immediately  on  entering  his  own  room  he  sat 
down  and  committed  it  to  paper.  It  was  the  well- 
known  song  beginning,  "  I  wandered  by  the  brookside," 
and  having  the  refrain, 

"  But  the  beating  of  my  own  heart 
Was  all  the  sound  I  heard." 

When  he  came  down  to  dinner  he  brought  the  verses 
with  him,  and  showed  them  to  his  friends.  They  were 
unanimous  in  declaring  them  to  be  wholly  unworthy 
of  his  powers  and  the  reputation  he  already  enjoyed, 
and  they  urged  upon  him  the  wisdom  of  committing 
them  at  once  to  the  flames.  As  it  happens,  the  little 


176  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

verses,  which  thus  met  with  so  '-cold  a  reception  when 
they  were  first  launched  upon  the  world,  were  destined 
to  obtain  perhaps  a  wider  fame  and  popularity  than 
anything  else  which  fell  from  his  pen.  From  the  first 
moment  of  their  publication  they  caught  the  ear  of  the 
public;  they  were  set  to  music  almost  directly  after 
they  had  been  printed,  rival  composers  competing  for 
the  privilege  of  associating  their  names  with  them  ;  and 
little  more  than  twelve  months  after  that  lonely  ride  on 
the  Irish  highway,  when  the  first  idea  of  the  poem  came 
into  Milnes's  mind,  a  friend  of  his,  who  was  sailing  down 
a  river  in  the  Southern  States  of  North  America,  heard 
the  slaves  as  they  hoed  in  the  plantations  keeping  time 
by  singing  a  parody  of  the  lines  now  universally  familiar.* 
Social  life  in  London  was  not  certainly  in  the  first 
instance  unfavourable  to  intellectual  exertion  on  the  part 
of  Milnes.  The  years  between  1830  and  1840  were  those 
in  which  he  produced  most  of  his  poetry.  I  shall  speak 
hereafter  of  that  poetry  as  a  whole ;  but  bearing  in  mind 
its  character,  the  tenderness  of  feeling,  and  the  graceful- 
ness of  fancy  by  which  it  is  distinguished,  it  is  interest- 
ing to  remember  that  it  was  produced  at  the  very  time 
when  the  young  man  was  entering  upon  the  fullest  en- 
joyment of  the  social  life  which  he  relished  so  keenly. 
Nor  did  his  indulgence  in  the  pleasures  of  society  at  all 
affect  his  old  friendships.  MacCarthy,  writing  to  him 

*  Milnes  was  walking  in  London  one  day  in  later  years  with  a  friend. 
Passing  the  end  of  a  street,  he  paused,  listened  eagerly  to  a  wandering 
siuger  whose  voice  had  reached  him,  and  then  darting  off  in  pursuit  of 
the  man,  reappeared  quickly  with  a  glow  of  delight  on  his  face.  "I  knew 
it  was  my  song!"  he  exclaimed,  showing  a  roughly-printed  broadside 
bearing  the  words  of  his  famous  song. 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  177 

towards  the  close  of  1836,  after  bearing  something  of  his 
success  in  London,  pours  forth  expressions  of  his  joy  at 
finding  that  he  is  still  unchanged  in  face  and  heart. 

I  must  confess  to  you  now  that  I  have  been  guilty  of  great 
injustice  towards  you,  that  I  had  thought  you  were  growing  old 
in  heart  and  affection,  and  had  looked  on  your  friendship  as  on  one 
of  the  many  dreams  of  youth  and  hope,  from  which  I  am  slowly 
awakening.  .  .  .  And  therefore  I  need  not  use  many  words 
to  express  to  you  my  joy  at  finding  out  that  my  life-dream  was 
true  after  all ;  that  you  are  really  what  you  used  to  be,  that  no 
change  has  come  over  your  features ;  .  .  and  that  I  can 
gaze  on  them  once  again,  and  see  them  smile  and  beckon  as  they 
were  wont  to  do. 

One  of  Milnes's  occupations  during  this  winter  of 
1836,  was  the  procuring  of  poetical  contributions  to  an 
annual  which  Lord  Northampton  was  about  to  publish 
for  a  charitable  purpose.  That,  as  the  reader  knows, 
was  the  age  of  annuals,  when  each  succeeding  Christmas 
brought  forth  its  crop  of  "  Gems,"  and  "  Albums,"  and 
"  Books  of  Beauty ;  "  for  the  most  part  vapid  produc- 
tions, the  memory  of  which  has  long  since  passed  away. 
But  there  were  exceptions  to  the  rale,  even  in  the  case 
of  these  Christmas  Annuals,  and  such  an  exception  was 
undoubtedly  "  The  Tribute,"  the  volume  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  which  Milnes  was  responsible  almost  as  largely 
as  Lord  Northampton  himself.  He  wrote  to  all  his 
friends — Trench,  Alford,  Spedding,  Aubrey  de  Vere, 
Julius  Hare,  even  to  Whewell  himself — to  solicit  con- 
tributions, and  there  were  few  of  them  who  failed  to 
comply.  Amongst  those  whom  he  thus  importuned  for 
assistance  in  the  work  of  charity  was  Alfred  Tennyson, 


178  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

and  the  result  was  a  correspondence  both  interesting  and 
characteristic. 

Alfred  Tennyson  to  R.  M.  M. 

December,  1836. 

DEAR  RICHARD, — As  I  live  eight  miles  from  my  post  town, 
and  only  correspond  therewith  about  once  a  week,  you  must  not 
wonder  if  this  reaches  you  somewhat  late.  Your  former  brief  I 
received,  though  some  six  days  behind  time,  and  stamped  with 
the  postmarks  of  every  little  market  town  in  the  county,  but  I 
did  not  think  that  it  demanded  an  immediate  answer,  hence  my 
silence. 

That  you  had  promised  the  Marquis  I  would  write  for  him 
something  exceeding  the  average  length  of  annual  compositions  ; 
that  you  had  promised  him  I  would  write  at  all — I  took  this  for 
one  of  those  elegant  fictions  with  which  you  amuse  your  aunts  of 
evenings,  before  you  get  into  the  small  hours  when  dreams  are 
true.  Three  summers  back,  provoked  by  the  incivility  of  editors, 
I  swore  an  oath  that  I  would  never  again  have  to  do  with  their 
vapid  books,  and  I  brake  it  in  the  sweet  face  of  Heaven  when  I 
wrote  for  Lady  what's-her-name  Wortley.  But  then  her  sister 
wrote  to  Brookfield  and  said  she  (Lady  W.)  was  beautiful,  so  I 
could  not  help  it.  But  whether  the  Marquis  be  beautiful  or  not 
I  don't  much  mind  ;  if  he  be,  let  him  give  God  thanks  and  make 
no  boast.  To  write  for  people  with  prefixes  to  their  names  is  to 
milk  he-goats ;  there  is  neither  honour  nor  profit.  Up  to  this 
moment  I  have  not  even  seen  "  The  Keepsake ;  "  not  that  I  care 
to  see  it,  but  the  want  of  civility  decided  me  not  to  break  mine 
oath  again  for  man  nor  woman.  And  how  should  such  a  modest 
man  as  I  see  my  small  name  in  collocation  with  the  great  ones 
of  Southey,  Wordsworth,  R.  M.  M.,  &c.,  and  not  feel  myself  a 
barndoor  fowl  among  peacocks  ?  Your  account  of  the  debate  at 
the  Union  is  amusing ;  I  had  never  heard  of  it,  for  nobody  ever 
writes  to  me.  It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  put  the  professor 
into  a  passion  again.  Good-bye.  Believe  me, 

Always  thine, 

A.T. 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  179 

Milnes  was  angry  at  receiving  this  refusal  from  his 
friend,  upon  obtaining  whose  aid  he  had  set  his  heart, 
and  he  indulged  in  one  of  those  short-lived  outbursts  of 
irritation  which  his  warm  and  sensitive  temperament 
caused  to  be  by  no  means  unfrequent,  and  which  some- 
times led  him  to  use  language  that  he  afterwards  deeply 
regretted. 

Tennyson's  reply  to  an  angry  epistle  may  justly  be 
regarded  as  a  model  of  its  class. 

Alfred  Tennyson  to  JR.  M.  M. 

fan.  10M,  1837. 

Why,  what  in  the  name  of  all  the  powers,  my  dear  Richard, 
makes  you  run  me  down  in  this  fashion  ?  Now  is  my  nose  out 
of  joint,  now  is  my  tail  not  only  curled  so  tight  as  to  lift  me 
off  my  hind  legs  like  Alfred  CrowquilFs  poodle,  but  fairly 
between  them.  Many  sticks  are  broken  about  me.  I  am  the 
ass  in  Homer.  I  am  blown.  What  has  so  jaundiced  your  good- 
natured  eyes  as  to  make  them  mistake  harmless  banter  for 

insolent  irony :  harsh  terms  applicable  only  to ,  who, 

big  as  he  is,  sits  to  all  posterity  astride  upon  the  nipple  of 
literary  dandyism,  and  "  takes  her  milk  for  gall."  "  Insolent 
irony  "  and  "  piscatory  vanity/'  as  if  you  had  been  writing  to 
St.  Anthony,  who  converted  the  soft  souls  of  salmon ;  but  may 
St.  Anthony's  fire  consume  all  misapprehension,  the  spleen-born 
mother  of  five-fold  more  evil  on  our  turnip-spheroid  than  is 
malice  aforethought. 

Had  I  been  writing  to  a  nervous,  morbidly-irritable  man, 
down  in  the  world,  stark  spoiled  with  the  staggers  of  a  mis- 
managed imagination,  and  quite  opprest  by  fortune  and  by  the 
reviews,  it  is  possible  that  I  might  have  halted  to  find  expres- 
sions more  suitable  to  his  case ;  but  that  you,  who  seem  at  least 
to  take  the  world  as  it  comes,  to  doff  it  and  let  it  pass — that  you, 
a  man  every  way  prosperous  and  talented,  should  have  taken  pet 


180  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

at  my  unhappy  badinage,  made  me — lay  down  my  pipe  and  stare 
at  the  fire  for  ten  minutes,  till  the  stranger  fluttered  up  the 
chimney.  You  wish  that  I  had  never  written  that  passage.  So 
do  I,  since  it  seems  to  have  such  offence.  Perhaps  you  likewise 
found  a  stumbling-block  in  the  expression,  "  vapid  books/'  as 
the  angry  inversion  of  four  commas  seems  to  intimate.  But 
are  not  Annuals  vapid  ?  Or  could  I  possibly  mean  that  what 
you  or  Trench  or  De  Vere  chose  to  write  therein  must  be  vapid  ? 
I  thought  you  knew  me  better  than  even  to  insinuate  these 
things.  Had  I  spoken  the  same  words  to  you  laughingly  in  my 
chair,  and  with  my  own  emphasis,  you  would  have  seen  what 
they  really  meant,  but  coming  to  read  them  peradventure  in  a 
fit  of  indigestion,  or  with  a  slight  matutinal  headache  after  your 
Apostolic  symposium,  you  subject  them  to  such  misinterpreta- 
tion as,  if  I  had  not  sworn  to  be  true  friend  to  you  till  my  latest 
death-ruckle,  would  have  gone  far  to  make  me  indignant.  But 
least  said  soonest  mended ;  which  comes  with  peculiar  grace  from 
me  after  all  this  verbiage.  You  judge  me  rightly  in  supposing 
that  I  would  not  be  backward  in  doing  a  really  charitable  deed. 
I  will  either  bring  or  send  you  something  for  your  Annual.  It 
is  very  problematical  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  come  and  see 
you  as  I  proposed,  so  do  not  return  earlier  from  your  tour  on  my 
ace  mnt ;  and  if  I  qome  I  should  only  be  able  to  stop  a  few  days, 
for  as  I  and  all  my  people  are  going  to  leave  this  place  very 
shortly  never  to  return,  I  have  much  upon  my  hands.  But 
whether  I  see  you  or  no, 

Believe  me, 

Always  thine  affectionately, 

A.  TENNYSON. 

I  have  spoken  with  Charles.  He  has  promised  to  contribute 
to  your  Annual.  Frederick  will,  I  daresay,  follow  his  example. 
See  now  whether  I  am  not  doing  my  best  for  you,  and  whether 
you  had  any  occasion  to  threaten  me  with  that  black  Anacarna 
and  her  cocoa-shod  coves  of  niggers.  I  cannot  have  her  strolling 
about  the  land  in  this  way.  It  is  neither  good  for  her  repu- 
tation nor  mine.  When  is  Lord  Northampton's  book  to  be 


ENTRANCE    UPON    LONDON  LIFE.  181 

published,  and  how  long  may  I  wait  before  I  send  anything  by 
way  of  contribution  ? 

The  poet  and  his  brothers  were  as  good  as  their 
word.  Each  sent  a  contribution  to  the  "  Tribute,"  which 
now  holds  a  place  of  its  own  in  English  literature,  owin^ 
to  the  fact  that  Alfred  Tennyson's  contribution  to  it 
consisted  of  the  lines  beginning : — 

"  Oh,  that  'twere  possible, 

After  long  grief  and  pain, 
To  find  the  arms  of  my  true  love 
Round  me  once  again  !  " 

which  formed  the  germ  of  the  great  dramatic  poem  of 
"  Maud." 

Another  of  his  friends  to  whom  Milnes  applied  for 
help  was  Landor,  who  was  at  this  time  in  England,  and 
the  following  was  the  re'sponse : — 

Walter  Savage  Landor  to  R.  M.  M. 

Clifton,  Nov.  Wth,   1836. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — It  always  gives  me  pleasure  to  hear  from 
you.  As  for  my  contributions  of  poetry,  they  are  utterly 
worthless,  and  I  seldom  keep  anything.  What  I  do  keep  I 
send  to  Lady  Blessington,  having  told  her  long  ago  that  I  would 
never  publish  anything  before  she  had  judged  whether  it  were 
worth  a  place  in  any  of  her  publications.  I  am  sure,  however, 
she  will  more  easily  pardon  me  than  you  will  the  sending  of  such 
verses  as  you  see  on  the  other  side.  I  did  not  imagine  there 
was  anything  passable  in  French  poetry  between  " Mon  cher 
enfantilet"  (which  far  exceeds  Simonides's  art  \dpva/cd)  and 
Beranger;  but  Madame  Genlis  has  written  what  I  have  been 
trying  to  retrace,  as  you  see.  I  will  lay  a  wager  that  your 
verses  on  "  my  grave  Walter  "  are  better  than  any  in  the  pro- 
jected book.  Were  it  not  that  I  am  set  in  gold  there  I  would  en- 
treat you  to  publish  them.  Mine  will  inevitably  be  the  worst  in 


182  THE   LIFH   OF  LORD   HOUGBTON. 

the  volume.  Lest  you  should  think  I  am  affecting  modesty,  I 
will  dash  down  that  idea,  and  tell  you  plainly  that  all  the  poetry 
of  all  the  writers  unto  usque  quaque  is  not  worth  my  "  Death 
of  Clytemnestra,"  which  I  wrote  in  an  hour.  The  worthies  of 
Edinburgh  have  been  attacking  me.  I  never  read  a  number  of 
Blackwood  in  my  life ;  this  was  told  the  editor,  who  has  ragged 
me  in  some  passages  which  were  sent  to  me.  Within  next  week 
you  will  have  a  copy,  not  of  my  answer,  for  I  answer  no  man, 
but  of  a  satire  on  these  people  and  others  somewhat  better. 
Southey  was  here  last  week.  We  walked  together  all  the  fine 
days,  too  few  !  Thank  God  that  divine  man  bears  up  against 
his  heavy  calamity.  Here  is  room  for  a  few  dry  leaves. 

"  Suspicions  fall 

On  great  Glen  gall 
When  spite  and  falsehood  speak  ill. 

When  we  hear  wit 

We  attribute  it 
To  Alvanley  or  Jekyll.  * 

In  whate'er  matter 

There  is  idle  chatter, 

At  once  we  father't  on 

The  luckless  Fotherton 

So  small  capacity 

So  large  loquacity 
Has  luckless  Hatherton,  luckless  Hatherton." 

Recollections  of  lines  by  Madame  de  Genlis. 

"  Another  claims  your  altered  vow ; 
Matilda  fades  before  your  eye. 
Her  only  wish  on  earth  is  now 
Once  to  behold  you  and  to  die. 

Oh,  hasten  then,  for  death  comes  fast  ; 
In  pity  too  will  Edmund  come 
While  (youth's  and  hope's  last  shadows  past) 
Vain  love  still  hovers  o'er  the  tomb. 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  183 

Should  mortal  paleness  overspread 
A  cheek  like  monumental  stone, 
To  meet  the  stillness  of  the  dead, 
Say  not,  '  Matilda,  thou  art  gone.' 

But  if  at  your  approach  my  ear 
Mark  not  each  footfall  still  the  same, 
Oh,  Edmund,  if  when  you  appear, 
I  shudder  not  through  all  my  frame, 

When  all  is  vanished  from  my  view, 
If  "'tis  not  you  my  eyes  explore, 
If  my  weak  heart  beats  not  for  you, 
Say  then,  Matilda  is  no  more/' 

About  this  time  thirty-two  years  ago  I  was  condemned  to 
write  a  charade.  This  is  not  an  imaginary  conversation  : — 

S.  Did  you  ever  find  out  a  charade  ? 
L.  I  never  tried — nobody  shall  ever  induce  me. 
S.  Could  you  make  one  ? 

L.  I  could  make — God  knows  what — if  you  would  help  me. 
S.  Make  a  charade  then.     I  will  try  to  help  you  if  you  are 
at  fault. 

Charade. 

The  first  is  very  near  a  tree, 

The  last  my  heart  has  done  for  thee. 

Now  solve  me,  never  mind  the  trouble, 

It  shall  repay  thee  more  than  double. — W.  S.  L. 

Tre-bled. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Landor's  expressions 
with  regard  to  Milnes's  poetry  were  those  of  mere 
flattery.  He  held  strongly  to  the  opinion  already 
mentioned,  that  Milnes  was  ahead  of  all  his  living  con- 
temporaries as  a  poet.  In  Crabbe  Robinson's  Diary 
for  the  year  1838,  he  speaks  of  a  breakfast  he  gave,  at 
which  Landor  was  present,  and  adds : — 


184  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON 

A  great  deal  of  rattling  on  the  part  of  Landor,  who  main- 
tained Blake  to  be  the  greatest  of  poets,  and  that  Milnes  is  the 
greatest  poet  now  living  in  England,  &c. 

There  were  two  great  houses  in  London  which  at 
that  time  were  recognised  centres  of  social  life,  and  to 
both  of  them  Milnes  had  access.  One  of  these  was 
Lansdowne  House,  to  which  his  early  friendship  with 
Lord  Lansdowne  gave  him  constant  admission.  Here, 
if  we  may  believe  Sir  Henry  Taylor,  literary  society 
in  London  had  its  home.  Lansdowne  House  must,  of 
course,  have  been  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  great 
resorts  of  the  Whig  party  ;  but  it  was  its  literary  rather 
than  its  political  side  which  attracted  Milnes,  and  made 
him  one  of  its  constant  frequenters. 

The  other  great  house  was  that  which  during  more 
than  one  generation  has  played  so  prominent  a  part  in 
London  social  life — the  stately  building  known  as  Hol- 
land House,  which  now  remains,  alas  !  the  sole  surviving 
example  of  the  great  nobleman's  country  home  within 
the  sound  of  the  streets  of  London.  It  was  a  great 
privilege  to  any  young  man  to  find  himself  admitted  to 
the  brilliant  and  cosmopolitan  society  of  Holland  House, 
where  Sydney  Smith  was  still  the  ruling  wit,  and  where 
Lady  Holland's  caustic  tongue  added  a  flavour  to  the 
conversation  of  the  place,  which  was  at  times  too  bitter 
to  be  altogether  enjoyable. 

There  was  yet  another  house  famous  in  the  social 
annals  of  the  time,  and  frequented  by  many  men  of  genius, 
although  the  reputation  which  attached  to  it  was  dis- 
tinctly Bohemian.  This  was  the  suburban  villa  known 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  185 

as  Grore  House,  which  stood  then  in  the  midst  of 
pleasant  gardens,  long  since  turned  into  the  arid  streets 
and  squares  of  South  Kensington,  and  the  presiding 
spirit  of  which  was  that  eccentric  woman  of  genius 
the  Countess  of  Blessington.  With  Grore  House  three 
names  will  ever  be  associated — those  of  Prince  Louis 
Napoleon,  of  Count  D'Orsay,  and  of  Benjamin  Disraeli. 
Landor  had  long  been  one  of  Lady  Blessington's  most 
intimate  friends,  and  Grore  House  was  his  London  home 
whenever  he  visited  the  metropolis.  Through  him 
Milnes  made  the  acquaintance  of  Lady  Blessington  and 
D'Orsay,  and  very  early  in  his  social  life  he  became  not 
only  a  frequenter  of  the  house,  but  the  friend  of  the 
three  men  whose  names  I  have  just  mentioned. 

A  fourth  house,  like  the  others  famous  in  society  in 
those  days,  must  also  be  mentioned — the  luxurious  abode 
in  St.  James's.  Place  where  Samuel  Rogers  lived  his  life 
of  self-indulgence,  and  gave  hospitable  entertainment 
to  successive  generations  of  men  of  genius.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  Rogers's  breakfasts,  at  which  Milnes 
soon  became  a  familiar  figure,  excited  in  the  young 
man's  breast  a  spirit  of  emulation.  Rogers  was  even 
then  very  old,  and  his  day  seemed  to  be  passing.  When 
he  was  gone,  that  which  had  become  almost  an  institu- 
tion in  the  life  of  London  would  have  passed  away.  It 
seemed  to  Richard  Milnes  that  to  succeed  Rogers  as  the 
host  at  whose  table  men  of  all  parties  and  creeds  could 
meet,  with  no  other  bond  of  union  than  their  common 
intellectual  superiority,  was  an  object  worthy  of  his 
ambition ;  and  we  may,  I  think,  fairly  assume  that  when 


186  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

he  began  in  his  chambers  in  Pall  Mall  that  series  of 
breakfasts  which  he  continued  through  so  many  years  of 
his  life,  he  was  distinctly  following  the  example  which 
had  been  set  by  the  older  poet. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  Milnes's  intimacy  with 
another  set  in  the  intellectual  society  of  London — that 
of  which  John  Sterling  and  Frederick  Maurice  were  the 
leading  spirits.  By-and-by,  as  we  shall  see,  this  pir- 
ticular  coterie,  one  in  which  the  tone  of  thought  was 
somewhat  graver  than  it  was  in  any  of  the  houses  I 
have  named,  formed  a  society  of  its  own,  a  society  which 
ultimately  became  known  as  the  Sterling  Club,  and  in 
which  Milnes  had  a  prominent  place.  It  is  worth  while 
recording  the  fact  that  Milnes  was  thus  very  early  in 
his  social  career  an  intimate  member  of  circles  differing 
so  widely  from  each  other  as  those  of  Lansdowne  House, 
Holland  House,  Gore  House,  and  the  Sterling  Club, 
because  it  throws  light  upon  that  catholicity  of  tempera- 
ment and  sympathy  for  which  he  was  so  eminently 
distinguished  throughout  his  life.  Indeed,  he  had 
hardly  established  himself  in  his  bachelor  apartments 
in  Pall  Mall  before  his  fame  as  a  host  who  was  "  always 
bringing  out  some  society  curiosity  "  had  spread  abroad. 
To  be  the  means  of  making  the  notoriety  of  the  moment 
known  to  the  leading  members  of  English  society  was 
delightful  to  him,  and  as  he  never  cared  to  weigh  too 
closely  the  moral  claims  of  such  notoriety  to  his  hospi- 
tality, the  result  was  at  times  rather  startling.  Sir 
Henry  Taylor,  in  his  Autobiography,  has  put  on  record 
one  of  the  many  stories  which  were  current  regarding 


ENTRANCE    UPON  LONDON   LIFE.  187 

the  universality  of  Milnes's  invitations.  It  is  that 
which  tells  how  one  day  at  his  table  someone  enquired 
whether  a  particular  murderer — Courvoisier,  if  I  remem- 
ber rightly — had  been  hanged  that  morning,  and  how 
his  sister  immediately  responded,  "  I  hope  so,  or  Richard 
will  have  him  at  his  breakfast  party  next  Thursday."  I 
only  mention  this  story  here  in  order  to  say  that,  like 
many  others  concerning  Millies,  it  was  absolutely  with- 
out foundation.  These  tales  were,  however,  part  of  the 
penalty  he  had  to  pay  for  his  early-acquired  fame. 

Carlyle,  according  to  Mr.  Froude,  used  to  say  that 
if  Christ  was  again  on  earth  Milnes  would  ask  him  to 
breakfast,  and  the  Clubs  would  all  be  talking  of  the 
good  things  that  Christ  had  said.  "  But  Milnes  then 
as  always,"  remarks  Eroude,  accurately  interpreting  the 
sentiments  of  Carlyle  himself,  "  had  open  eyes  for 
genius,  and  reverence  for  it,  truer  and  deeper  than  most 
of  his  contemporaries."  Years  afterwards  Carlyle  and 
Milnes  were  talking  at  the  Grange,  the  home  of  Lord 
and  Lady  Ashburton,  of  the  Administration  just  formed 
by  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  Milnes  was  evincing  some  dis- 
appointment at  the  fact  that  he  had  not  been  offered  a 
post  in  it.  "  No,  no,"  said  Carlyle,  "  Peel  knows  what 
he  is  about ;  there  is  only  one  post  fit  for  you,  and  that 
is  the  office  of  perpetual  president  of  the  Heaven  and 
Hell  Amalgamation  Society."  There  is  no  need  for 
Milnes's  biographer  to  enter  into  any  defence  of  this  cha- 
racteristic of  the  man.  It  would  indeed  be  a  pity  if  any 
apology  were  needed  for  a  characteristic  which  is  at  least 
not  a  common  one  in  a  social  life  so  largely  founded  as 


188  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOVGHTON. 

that  of  England  is  upon  narrow  prejudice  and  violent 
prepossessions.  But  one  thing  at  least  may  be  said  here. 
Many  of  those  whose  admission  into  society  through  the 
hospitable  door  of  Milnes's  dining-room  caused  at  the 
moment  the  greatest  consternation  among  fashionable 
cliques  and  coteries,  were  men  who  have  long  since 
by  universal  consent  sequred  their  place  in  the  best 
social  circles. 

In  his  interesting  sketch  of  the  Miss  Berrys  con- 
tained in  his  volume  of  "  Monographs,"  Lord  Houghton 
says  something  of  one  of  the  distinguishing  features  of 
English  life,  the  absence  of  that  sympathetic  inter- 
course without  which  conversation  as  an  art  can  never 
reach  its  highest  point.  "  The  universal  reticence  of  all 
men  in  high  political  station  with  us,  quite  justifies  the 
remark  of  a  traveller  that  an  Englishman  refuses  to 
speak  just  in  proportion  as  he  has  anything  to  say,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  more  adventure  related  and  more 
mutual  interest  excited  in  any  French  cafe  militaire  than 
in  the  United  Service  Club,  where  there  is  hardly  a  man 
present  who  has  not  been  the  witness  of,  or  the  actor 
in,  some  of  the  historical  events  or  memorable  circum- 
stances of  our  age.  Neither  our  language  nor  our  tem- 
perament favours  that  sympathetic  intercourse  where 
the  feature  and  the  gesture  are  as  active  as  the  voice, 
and  in  which  the  pleasure  does  not  so  much  consist  in 
the  thing  communicated  as  in  the  act  of  communication. 
And  still  less  are  we  inclined  to  value  and  cultivate 
that  true  art  of  conversation,  that  rapid  counterplay  and 
vivid  exercise  of  combined  intelligences,  which  bears  to 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  189 

the  best  ordinary  speech  the  relation  that  serious  whist 
bears  to  "  playing  cards,"  and  which  presupposes  not 
previous  study,  but  the  long  and  due  preparation  of  the 
imagination  and  the  intellect." 

Milnes  himself  gave  practical  effect  to  the  high 
conception  which  he  had  thus  formed  of  the  art 
of  conversation.  How  brilliant  and  amusing  he  was 
over  the  dinner-table  or  the  breakfast-table  was  known 
to  all  his  friends.  Overflowing  with  information,  his 
mind  was  lightened  by  a  bright  wit,  whilst  his  immense 
store  of  appropriate  anecdotes  enabled  him  to  give  point 
and  colour  to  every  topic  which  was  brought  under  dis- 
cussion. But  those  who  have  enjoyed  that  table-talk, 
the  charm  of  which  will  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  knew  him,  hardly  perhaps  did  justice  to  the  care 
which  Milnes  bestowed  upon  this  art  of  conversation. 
One  of  his  intimates  was  his  old  Cambridge  friend, 
Charles  Buller,  and  the  two  men  were  acknowledged  as 
rival  wits  for  many  a  year  at  the  dinner-tables  of  the 
West  End.  I  remember  Lord  Houghton  once  telling  me 
that  when  their  apparent  rivalry  in  wit  and  conversation 
was  at  its  height,  he  and  Buller,  when  they  met  at  their 
club  of  an  afternoon,  and  learned,  as  was  frequently  the 
case,  that  they  were  to  be  guests  at  the  same  house  in 
the  evening,  would  as  a  joke  discuss  beforehand  the 
topics  upon  which  they  were  to  converse,  and  occasion- 
ally hit  upon  the  "  brilliant  impromptus "  by  means 
of  which  the  seeming  rivals  were  to  cap  each  other's 
jests. 

*  "  Monographs,  Social  and  Political,'  p.  206. 


190  THE   LIFE    OF  LOED   HOUGH  TON. 

There  was  one  form  of  the  art  of  conversation,  indeed, 
which,  about  the  period  when  Milnes  began  his  career 
as  a  social  entertainer,  was  practised  to  an  almost 
alarming  extent  in  certain  sets  in  London.  This  was 
that  kind  of  dinner-table  talk  which  assumes  the  form 
not  of  a  general  conversation  but  of  a  monologue  on 
the  part  of  one  brilliant  and  gifted  performer.  Milnes 
himself  has  mentioned  four  men  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  this  respect — Coleridge,  Sydney  Smith, 
Macaulay,  and  Carlyle.  There  was  no  man  who  lis- 
tened with  keener  appreciation  to  the  picturesque  and 
prophetic  utterances  of  Carlyle,  or  the  rich  outpourings 
of  Lord  Macaulay's  infinite  knowledge,  than  did  Milnes ; 
but  he  himself  had  the  strongest  abhorrence  of  this  per- 
version of  the  art  of  conversation,  and  all  who  have  heard 
him  talk  know  well  that,  even  in  his  happiest  moments, 
he  never  sought  to  monopolise  the  attention  of  the  dinner- 
table,  but  on  the  contrary  was  always  as  anxious  to 
evoke  the  wit  and  the  intelligence  of  others  as  to  dis- 
play his  own.  A  rare  virtue  this  in  our  social  life,  and 
one  which  I  may  fairly  maintain  bespeaks  the  posses- 
sion of  other  virtues  also  on  the  part  of  the  man  who 
exercises  it.  As  I  have  mentioned  Macaulay's  name,  it 
may  be  noted  that  in  1836  he  was  still  in  India,  and 
Milnes  and  Carlyle  and  the  other  new-comers  in  society 
knew  him  only  by  repute.  Macaulay  returned  in  1838, 
and  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  London  Milnes  met  him 
at  a  breakfast  at  Eogers's,  at  which  Carlyle  was  also  pre- 
sent. The  fame  of  Carlyle's  utterances — for,  as  I  have 
shown,  I  can  hardly  speak  of  his  talk  as  conversation 


ENTRANCE    UPON    LONDON   LIFE.  191 

— was  then  at  its  zenith,  and  Rogers's  guests  had 
gone  hoping  to  enjoy  a  rich  treat.  But  Macaulay,  his 
mind  overflowing  with  the  stores  of  knowledge  which 
had  been  accumulating  during  his  sojourn  in  India, 
seized  the  first  opening  that  presented  itself,  and  having 
once  obtained  the  ear  of  the  company,  never  allowed  it 
to  escape  even  for  a  moment  until  the  party  was  at  an 
end.  Greatly  dissatisfied  at  the  issue  of  a  morning 
from  which  he  had  expected  so  much,  Milnes  followed 
Carlyle  into  the  street.  "  I  am  so  sorry,"  he  said  to  the 
philosopher,  "  that  Macaulay  would  talk  so  much,  and 
prevent  our  hearing  a  single  word  from  you."  Carlyle 
turned  round  and  held  up  his  hands  in  astonishment. 
"  What,"  he  said,  with  the  accent  of  Annandale,  "  was 
that  the  Right  Honourable  Tom  ?  I  had  no  idea  that 
it  was  the  Right  Honourable  Tom.  Ah,  weel,  I  un- 
derstand the  Right  Honourable  Tom  now."  It  was 
the  first  occasion  on  which  the  two  historians  had  met. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1837  that  Milnes  took  up  his 
residence  in  Pall  Mall.  Among  the  letters  which  he 
received  about  that  time,  I  find  one  from  Monteith,  tell- 
ing him  that  he  had  met  Mr.  Gladstone  in  Glasgow,  and 
they  had  five  minutes'  talk  about  him,  of  the  character 
of  which  he  had  no  need  to  be  afraid.  Both  Gladstone 
and  Monteith  had  agreed  that  Milnes  needed  sympathy 
more  than  admiration — a  very  just  estimate,  but  one 
which  only  those  who  knew  him  best  would  have 
arrived  at. 

About  the  same  time  he  was  cheered  by  a  letter  from 
M.  Rio,  telling  him  that  his  lines  on  Venice  had  been 


192  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUOHTON. 

translated  into  Italian,  and  printed  in  every  Italian 
newspaper,  so  that  he  had  become  more  famous  in  his 
beloved  Italy  as  a  poet  than  he  was  in  his  native  land. 

In  the  month  of  May  in  this  year,  Carlyle,  who  had 
completed  his  "  French  Kevolution,"  made  his  first 
appearance  before  the  London  public  as  a  lecturer. 

James  Spedding  to  R.  M.  M. 

Colonial  Office,  UK  April,  1837. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Herewith  you  receive  the  last  groan  of 
the  great  poet,  and  I  take  the  opportunity  of  writing  to  make 
you  know,  if  you  do  not  know  already,  that  Carlyle  lectures  on 
German  literature  next  month  ;  the  particulars  you  will  find  in 
the  enclosed  syllabus,  which,  if  it  should  convey  as  much  know- 
ledge to  you  as  it  does  ignorance  to  me,  will  be  edifying.  Of 
course  you  will  be  here  to  attend  the  said  lectures,  but  I  want 
you  to  come  up  a  little  before  they  begin,  that  you  may  assist  in 
procuring  the  attendance  of  otbers.  The  list  of  subscribers  is  at 
present  not  large,  and  you  are  just  the  man  to  make  it  grow. 
As  it  is  Carlyle's  first  essay  in  tbis  kind,  it  is  important  that 
there  should  be  a  respectable  muster  of  hearers.  Some  name  of 
decided  piety  is,  I  believe,  rather  wanted.  Learning,  taste,  and 
nobility  are  represented  by  Hallam,  Rogers,  and  Lord  Lansdowne. 
H.  Taylor  has  provided  a  large  proportion  of  family,  wit,  and 
beauty,  and  I  have  assisted  them  to  a  little  Apostlehood.  We 
want  your  name  to  represent  tbe  great  body  of  Tories,  Roman 
Catholics,  High  Churchmen,  metaphysicians,  poets,  and  Savage 
Landor.  Come !  Miss  Fenwick  has  had  a  long  letter  from 
Wordsworth,  resembling,  according  to  H.  T.,  the  journal  of  a 
schoolgirl  on  ber  first  visit  to  foreign  parts.  Yesterday  I  dined 
witb  Alfred  Tennyson  at  the  Cock  Tavern,  Temple  Bar.  We 
had  two  cbops,  one  pickle,  two  cheeses,  one  pint  of  stout,  one 
pint  of  port,  and  three  cigars.  When  we  had  finished  I  had  to 
take  his  regrets  to  the  Kembles;  he  could  not  go  because  he 
had  the  influenza.  J.  S. 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  193 

Milnes  did  his  best  to  increase  the  attendance  at  the 
lectures,  that  famous  mixture  of  "play-acting  and 
prophecy,"  according  to  the  lecturer  himself,  which  did 
so  much  to  make  Carlyle  known  in  London  society ;  and 
it  is  from  this  period  that  the  warm  friendship  of  the 
two  men  must  be  dated.  Carlyle's  genius  had  made 
the  deepest  impression  upon  him.  In  one  of  Milnes's 
Commonplace  Books  I  find  these  words  :  "  Carlyle's  writ- 
ings make  on  me  the  impression  of  the  sound  of  a  single 
hatchet  in  the  aboriginal  forests  of  North  America." 

The  London  season,  when  at  its  height  in  this  year 
1837,  was  cut  short  by  an  untoward  event,  the  death  of 
William  IV.,  on  the  20th  June.  Before  that  event  took 
place,  however,  Milnes  himself  was  called  out  of  London 
by  the  very  serious  illness  of  his  sister,  who  was  for 
some  time  in  a  dangerous  condition.  Just  before  this 
summons  he  had  arranged  to  take  part  in  a  dinner  of 
the  Apostles,  which  was  to  be  held  in  town,  with  Charles 
Buller  in  the  chair.  He  had  given  up  this  engagement 
because  of  his  sister's  illness,  and  very  soon  his  mind 
was  engrossed  in  a  new  direction. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Aubrey  de  Vere. 

Bawtry,  March  28*A,  1837. 

MY  DEAR  AUBREY, — I  write  rather  to  know  whether  there 
be  a  chance,  or  anything  like  a  chance,  of  seeing  you  in  Merry 
England  this  year  than  for  anything  else.  I  shall  be  in  the 
country,  reading  and  hearing  the  birds  sing  (when  the  weary 
weather  will  let  them)  most  of  the  spring  and  summer,  unless 
a  dissolution  of  Parliament  gives  me  an  occasion  of  busying 
myself.  I  have  lately  been  staying  with  Thirl  wall,  and  found 


194  TEE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUOHTON. 

him  much  more  willing  to  do  justice  to  the  honest  men  of 
Exeter  than  he  was  last  year.  Do  you  remember  how  cross  you 
were  at  him  for  pandering-  to  your  uncle  about  this  matter  ?  I 
am  in  no  hurry  to  publish  my  poems.  1  am  too  old  to  produce 
them  as  youthful  exercises,  so  that  they  will  have  to  come  for- 
ward on  their  own  merits  without  excuse  or  veil  :  hence  the 
assiduous  correction  of  them  by  judgment  and  experience  is 
imperative ;  and  when  the  world  is  such  that  Alfred  Tennyson 
does  not  think  it  worth  while  to  write  down  his  compositions, 
there  need  be  no  rash  eagerness  on  my  part.  It  is  more  than 
enough  if  you,  and  others  I  love  and  honour,  find  pleasure  in 
them ;  so  on  the  other  side  I  will  write  you  a  sonnet.  I  know 
no  particulars  of  good  Sir  Edward's  death ;  I  suppose  it  was  this 
subtle  devil,  influenza.  I  hope  Augustus  O'Brien  will  stand  for 
Rutlandshire  on  a  dissolution ;  he  will  be  a  great  acquisition  to 
the  party  in  the  House.  They  have  no  one  of  graceful  talent 
among  them.  Have  you  seen  Newman's  new  book  on  the  pro- 
phetical character  ?  I  have  sent  for  it,  but  it  has  not  arrived. 
I  hear  he  said  he  was  conscious  he  was  dealing  a  severe  blow  to 
actual  Protestantism.  His  volume  of  verses  is  very  interesting 
and  pleasing,  with  nearly  as  much  pure  poetry  as  one  wants  in 
that  kind  of  thing.  Has  De  Vere  married,  or  why  are  his 
chariot- wheels  so  long  tarrying?  How  has  your  sister  borne 
the  ferocity  of  this  lifeless  spring  ?  Pray  come  and  see  me  here. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

On  Cowper's  Grave  at  Olney. 

From  this  f orlornest  place  at  morn  and  eve 
Thus  says  a  voice  imperative  :  "  Begone 
All  ye  that  let  your  vermin  selves  creep  in 
Beneath  the  unheeded  thunders  of  high  heaven  : 
Nor  welcome  they  who,  when  free  grace  is  given 
To  flee  from  usual  life's  dominion, 
Soon  as  the  moving  scene  or  time  is  gone 
Return  like  penitents  unfitly  shriven. 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  195 

But  ye  who  long  have  wooed  the  memory 

Of  this  great  victim  of  sublime  despair, 

Encompassed  round  with  evil  as  with  air, 

Yet  crying,  '  God  is  good,  and  sinful  he/ 

Remain — and  feel  how  better  'tis  to  drink 

All  truth  to  madness  even  than  shun  that  fountain's  brink. 


R.  M.  M.  to  Aubrey  de  Vere. 

Bawtry,  May  2Uh,  1837. 

DEAR  AUBBEY, — The  chariot-wheels  of  your  letter  tarried 
considerably,  but  I  should  hardly  have  paid  any  attention  to 
them  if  they  had  come  on  a  railroad,  for  I  have  been  possessed 
for  the  last  month  with  a  thought  which  you  will  believe  has 
been  as  Aaron's  rod  to  all  others.  My  (only)  sister  has  been 
balancing  between  life  and  death;  and  though  it  has  seemed 
the  same  thing  to  her  whether  the  great  Arbiter  struck  the 
scale  this  way  or  that,  it  could  not  be  so  to  me.  At  the  present 
moment  she  is  not  what  the  learned  call  out  of  danger,  but 
the  tendency  is  toward  recovery;  and  she  is  as  easy  in  body 
as  in  mind:  so  sufficient  for  the  day  is  the  good  thereof.  It 
is  surely  strange  that  both  Gospel  and  Church  are  so  dumb 
on  the  matter  of  reunion  of  loving  spirits  after  death.  If  the 
bond  of  affection  be  in  itself  indissoluble,  there  must  be  same- 
ness if  not  a  unity  of  destination  for  those  souls  which  are 
thus  banded ;  and  how  is  this  reconcilable  with  the  adjustment 
of  spiritual  differences,  to  say  nothing  of  award  of  rewards 
and  punishments?  Can  we  conceive  a  soul  at  once  enjoying 
intellectual  communion  with  the  wise  Heathen,  affectionate 
communion  with  the  objects  of  its  earthly  love,  and  spiritual 
communion  with  Christ  and  the  saints?  Is  it  necessary  that 
the  last  should  absorb  the  other  two,  or,  to  speak  S crip tu  rally, 
is  there  no  abiding  life  of  sympathy  between  two  branches 
unless  they  are  both  grafted  into  the  one  and  same  Vine? 
Surely,  the  veriest  Christian  would  hardly  dare  to  violate  our 


196  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

all-human  hopes  so  far  as  this ;  and  yet  it  is  doubtless  a  much 
fairer,  a  much  closer  deduction  from  the  Christian  category  of 
truths  than  many  that  are  every  day  drawn  and  acted  upon. 
I  do  not  know  how  it  is,  but  when  one  begins  to  apply 
Christianity  to  anything  else  but  the  mere  state  of  one's  own 
moral  being,  one  is  hampered  on  all  sides  by  sorrowful 
perplexities  of  this  nature. 

Strafford*  is  like  a  drawing  of  Michael  Angelo.  It  is 
odd*  to  have  to  complain  nowadays  of  a  style  being  too  broad, 
but  this  is  the  case  here.  He  says  himself  very  truly  of  the 
play  that  it  is  rather  action  in  character  than  character  in 
action ;  and  thus  there  is  a  stiffness  as  of  cramp  about  the 
very  vigour  of  the  piece.  But  read  it.  Also  read  Miss 
Martineau's  "America;"  and  if  you  have  £1  11s.  6d.  to  lay 
up  in  wise  words,  buy  Carlyle's  "  French  Revolution/'  It  is 
strange  these  two  books  should  have  come  out  within  a  week — 
a  threnode  of  the  old  world,  a  Te  Deum  of  the  new,  blending 
in  chorus.  Miss  M.'s  treatment  of  the  Slavery  question 
is  far  more  lofty  than  one  would  have  expected  from  the 
school  she  professes.  You  will  find  yourself  in  company  with 
Tennyson,  Taylor,  and  Trench,  in  Lord  Northampton's 
"  Tribute,"  which  appears  next  month ;  and  now  as  you  are 
less  in  deed  than  in  desire  as  to  coming  to  England  I  have  a 
grace  to  ask  of  you.  Many  of  my  few  friends  have  humoured 
me  by  promising  me  their  'portraits  to  decorate  a  room  I  am 
fitting  up.  Will  you  let  some  cunning  man  in  Dublin  do  yours 
for  me — be  it  in  pencil,  chalk,  or  how  you  please;  anything 
except  those  miserable,  monstrous,  black  profiles  ?  Of  course, 
I  care  more  for  verisimilitude  than  art;  and  as  long  as  this  is 
satisfactory,  perhaps  the  simpler  the  better.  I  do  not  expect 
too  much,  feeling  too  strongly  what  Southey  has  so  beautifully 
enunciated  on  the  subject  in  the  "  Doctor."  Do  not  refuse  me. 

It  is,  perhaps,  the  confessorship  of  the  Newmanites  which 
makes  them  so  interesting;  but,  besides  their  great  honesty, 
they  no  doubt  understand  the  principles  of  Church  polity  much 

*  Robert  Browning's  play. 


ENTRANCE    UPON  LONDON   LIFE.  197 

better  than  any  people  in  Protestantism.  Whether  these  prin- 
ciples can  be  practically  worked  in  Protestantism  is  another 
question ;  as  far  as  I  see,  decidedly  not.  Their  spiritual  bear- 
ing on  the  individual  is  quite  another  matter;  they  want  that 
wonderful  combination  of  firmness  and  plasticity  which  dis- 
tinguished Romanism.  She  never  forgot  that  her  foot  was 
on  earth,  though  her  head  was  in  heaven.  If  my  dear  sister 
recovers,  I  shall  probably  print  a  small  volume  of  my 'verses 
this  autumn  for  friends  only.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  that 
yours  (sister  as  well  as  poetry)  are  going  on  so  satisfactorily. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

P.S.— The  D.  in  the  "Lyra  Apostolica"  is,  I  believe, 
Newman's  sign.  Landor  is  at  Clifton,  eating  up  his  own  heart, 
with  no  better  relish  than  the  bitter  herbs  of  world-contempt 
and  self -exaltation.  By-the-bye,  by  no  means  omit  to  get  "  The 
Kingdom  of  Christ/'  volume  first,  published  by  Darton,  High 
Holborn.  It  is  by  Maurice,  the  "  caposetta  "  of  our  Apostles, 
and  will  interest  you  exceedingly. 

The  death  of  the  king  was  followed  by  the  dis- 
solution of  Parliament,  and  Milnes  came  forward  as 
a  candidate  for  the  representation  of  Pontefract.  He 
stood  as  a  Conservative,  the  other  candidates  being 
W.  M.  Stanley  and  Sir  Culling  Eardley  Smith,  the 
latter  representing  the  Radical  party.  In  his 
address  to  the  electors,  June  28th,  Mimes  says  :  "  I 
have  earnest  hopes  that  the  advent  of  our  youthful 
sovereign  will  unite  all  the  virtue  in  the  nation  on  the 
side  of  constitutional  order."  In  accordance  with  the 
fashion  of  the  time  he  canvassed  personally  all  the 
electors,  and  during  the  course  of  the  canvass  issued 
another  address,  giving  special  thanks  to  the  "  fair  and 
generous  wives  and  daughters  "  of  the  constituency  for 


198  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUOHTON. 

the  manner  in  which  they  had  received  him.  It  is 
unfair  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  the  electioneering  agent, 
even  after  a  lapse  of  more  than  fifty  years.  Pontefract 
was  presumably  no  worse  than  other  constituencies  of 
that  day,  and  I  shall,  therefore,  make  no  more  than  a 
passing  reference  to  the  fact  that  in  the  poll-book  which 
was  prepared  for  the  young  Conservative  candidate  there 
were  certain  pages  devoted  to  the  enumeration  of  voters 
who  were  classed  under  the  characteristic  title  of 
"rascals,"  and  others  in  which  the  words  "head-money" 
recur  with  suspicious  frequency.  The  fight  was  un- 
doubtedly a  hot  one  while  it  lasted,  but  Milnes  threw 
himself  into  it  with  spirit,  speaking  frequently,  and 
evidently  gaining  courage  in  doing  so,  delighting  his 
father  by  his  ease  and  self-possession,  and  fulfilling  the 
high  hopes  of  his  friends.  It  was  on  July  25th  that  the 
poll  was  declared,  the  result  being  his  return  by  an  over- 
whelming majority.  The  figures  were — Milnes,  754; 
Stanley,  470;  Eardley  Smith,  134.  This  was  no 
dubious  triumph,  and  it  was  hailed  with  delight  by  all 
his  friends.  One  thing,  however,  is  noticeable  in  the 
congratulations  which  were  showered  upon  him,  and 
that  was  that,  until  he  actually  came  forward  as  a  Con- 
servative candidate,  even  those  who  knew  him  best  had 
been  in  some  doubt  as  to  the  precise  character  of  his 
political  opinions. 

Connop  Thirlwall,  for  instance,  writing  to  congratu- 
late him,  says : — 

It  is  rather  odd  that  I  should  have  known  a  good  deal  of  yon 
so  long,  and  yet  should  have  remained  so  ignorant  of  the  colour 


ENTRANCE    UPON  LONDON   LIFE.  199 

of  your  politics  as  I  have  always  been  till  within  about  a  year 
ago.  I  can  hardly  bring  myself  now  to  consider  you  as  a  Tory, 
or  indeed  as  belonging-  to  a  party  at  all;  and  though  I  am  aware 
how  difficult,  and  even  dangerous,  it  is  for  a  public  man  to  keep 
aloof  from  all  parties,  still  my  first  hope  as  well  as  expectation 
as  to  your  political  career  is  that  it  may  be  distinguished  by  some 
degree  of  originality. 

Another  friend,  Colville,  expresses  his  relief  at  find- 
ing that  he  is  a  sound  Conservative  after  all. 

It  was  immediately  after  the  king's  death,  hut  before 
the  dissolution,  that  he  received  the  following  letter  : — 


W.  E.  Gladstone  to  R.  M.  M. 

House  of  Commons,  June  ZQth,  1837. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  had  heard  that  your  sister  was  ill,  but 
not  of  the  extreme  severity  of  her  illness  and  the  danger  she  has 
undergone,  and  I  can  only  express  my  sincere  pleasure  at  learning 
that  her  state  has  greatly  improved,  an  improvement  which  I 
trust  it  may  please  God  to  continue.  .  .  .  We  are  now 
beginning  to  feel  tickled  by  the  approaching  dissolution.  I 
suppose  you  adhere  to  your  intention  of  coming  forward  for 
Pontefract,  as  Pollington  retires.  The  Ministers  have,  you  see, 
pretty  well  surrendered  their  ostensible  ground  about  the  Irish 
Church,  so  I  hope  that  you  and  I,  should  we  sit  in  the  approach- 
ing Parliament,  shall  not  be  found  in  different  lobbies  on  any 
material  divisions.  At  Newark  I  have  as  yet  no  ground  to 
anticipate  a  contest ;  and  if  my  engagements,  but  still  more  if 
your  domestic  circumstances,  are  in  a  state  to  allow  of  it,  it  will 
give  me  much  pleasure  to  visit  you. 

Believe  me 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 


200  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

The  visit  proposed  in  the  above  letter  did  not  take 
place,  for  on  August  llth  Mr.  Gladstone  writes  from 
Liverpool  to  Milnes  to  say  that  he  is  sick  and  weary 
with  his  election  peregrinations,  and  has  taken  his 
passage  for  "  Scotland  (Fasque,  Fettercairn)  "  to  see  what 
grouse  he  can  "  persuade  into  his  bag." 

Milnes  spent  the  autumn  at  Fryston  entertaining 
various  friends  of  his,  amongst  them  being  George 
Parley,  a  well-known  man  of  letters  of  his  time, 
whose  special  reason  for  going  to  Fryston  was  to  meet 
Tennyson. 

Among  the  little  offices  of  friendship  which  Milnes 
was  called  upon  to  discharge  about  this  time  was  one, 
the  description  of  which  is  given  in  a  letter  from  J.  W. 
Blakesley,  which  sounds  rather  strangely  now. 

I  shall  send  you  [said  Blakesley]  a  letter  to  Harriet 
Martineau,  who  wants  to  get  names  of  persons  willing  to 
purchase  Carlyle's  "Sartor  Resartus."  It  seems  the  booksellers 
will  not  reprint  the  work  until  they  can  be  sure  of  selling  three 
hundred  copies.  I  should  have  thought  the  cormorants  had 
picked  enough  from  the  bones  of  successful  authors  to  allow 
them  to  take  poor  Carlyle's  carcass  for  better  for  worse. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  "  Sartor  Eesartus  "  had 
in  the  first  instance  failed  to  find  a  publisher  in  an 
independent  form,  and  had  consequently  been  given  to 
the  world  piecemeal  in  the  pages  of  Frasers  Magazine. 
It  is  evident  from  this  letter  that  even  after  the  public 
had  been  made  acquainted  with  its  wondrous  treasures 
of  wit  and  wisdom,  and  after  Carlyle  had  gained  a 
footing  in  the  literary  society  of  his  day,  the  publishers 


ENTRANCE    UPON  LONDON   LIFE.  201 

were  still  a  timorous  race,  unprepared  to  burn  their 
fingers  by  meddling  with  the  light  of  the  writer's 
genius  unless  they  could  get  a  guarantee  for  the  sale  of 
three  hundred  copies  of  a  book,  the  circulation  of  which 
has  since  been  counted  by  tens,  if  not  hundreds,  of 
thousands. 

I  was  thinking-  to-day  [writes  Milnes  to  his  friend  MacCarthy 
from  Fryston,  October  15th,  1837]  that  the  thing  I  was  intended 
for  by  Nature  is  a  German  woman.  I  have  just  that  mixture  of 
hdusliche  Thdtigkeit  and  Sentimentalitdl  that  characterises  that 
category  of  Nature.  I  think  Goethe  would  have  fallen  in  love 
with  me,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  Platen  didn't. 

The  allusion  to  Goethe  recalls  an  incident  in 
the  writer's  experience.  One  Sunday  morning  about 
the  year  1879  I  was  staying  at  Fryston  with  Lord 
Houghton.  I  observed  that  he  spent  the  greater  part 
of  the  morning  in  writing.  By-and-by  he  came  from 
his  library  into  the  adjoining  room  where  I  was  sitting, 
holding;  a  sheet  of  paper  in  his  hand.  "  I  have  been 
setting  down,"  he  remarked,  "the  names  of  all  the 
celebrities  I  have  known  in  my  time."  "  You  must 
have  made  a  long  list,"  I  said.  "  On  the  contrary,  I 
am  amazed  at  its  shortness,  and  the  greatest  name  of 
all  is  missing — the  man  I  might  have  known  and  did 
not  know."  "  Who  was  that  ?  "  I  inquired.  "  Goethe," 
was  the  answer  ;  "  and  I  was  actually  at  Weimar  when 
he  was  living,  and  never  went  to  see  him.  I  can  never 
forgive  myself."  So  in  these  volumes  no  reminiscences 
of  the  great  German  will  be  found. 

On  November  20th  Parliament  was  opened  by  the 


202  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

Queen,  and  Milnes  posted  up  to  town  with  his  friend 
and  kinsman  James  Milnes  Graskell,  who  had  also  been 
returned  at  the  General  Election  as  member  for  Wenlock. 
The  House  of  which  he  had  become  a  member  had 
Lord  John  Russell  for  its  leader,  the  Opposition  being 
led  by  Sir  Eobert  Peel.  The  principal  persons  in  the 
Parliament  of  those  days  were  Lord  Palmerston,  Lord 
Morpeth,  Mr.  Spring  Rice,  Lord  Stanley,  Mr.  Lytton 
Bulwer,  Tom  Buncombe,  Hume,  and  O'Connell.  There 
were  other  young  men  of  promise  and  distinction  besides 
Milnes  who  came  to  it  as  new  members.  Among  these 
the  most  remarkable  was  Mr.  Disraeli,  still  known  in 
those  days  as  "  young  D'Israeli,"  whose  fame  as  traveller, 
as  novelist,  and  as  social  luminary  in  the  Gore  House 
set  was  already  great. 

On  December  7th  Mr.  Disraeli  delivered  himself  of 
that  famous  maiden  speech  *  which  must  be  memorable 
in  the  history  of  first  appearances,  and  on  the  following 
night  Richard  Milnes  made  his  own  debut  as  a  Par- 
liamentary orator.  His  father's  reputation  was  still 
cherished  in  the  lobbies,  and  not  a  little  curiosity  was 
excited  by  the  son's  performance.  Despite  the  nervous- 
ness natural  to  the  occasion,  it  was  a  distinct  and  un- 
equivocal success,  affording  a  curious  contrast  to  the 
dismal  failure  of  the  other  new  member,  whose  tem- 
porary humiliation  was,  however,  but  the  prelude  to  so 
brilliant  a  triumph. 

*  Milnes  was  sitting  next  Disraeli,  and  said,  "  Yes,  old  fellow,  so 
it  will,"  in  response  to  Disraeli's  words,  "The  time  will  come  when 
you  will  hear  me." 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  203 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

December  IMh,  1837. 

First  and  foremost  have  you  got  the  letter  I  received  for 
you  from,  I  suppose,  Mr.  de  S.  ?  It  was  despatched  the  middle 
of  this  week,  addressed  to  Hotel  Meurice,  and  went  in  a  packet 
to  Lord  Canterbury.  And  you  do  not  suppose  that  I  shall  now 
have  time  to  write  you  letterets  and  letteroni  as  heretofore  in 
the  idle  warm  places  of  other  years?  But  for  this  once  the 
world  must  wait.  "  Stay  there  in  the  ante-chamber,  great  and 
political  world  ;  you  must  amuse  yourself  without  me  one  quarter 
of  an  hour.  I  must  write  this  letter/'  How  foolish  of  you  to 
send  that  last  note,  that  mere  portion  of  humour  by  itself  ! 
Why  not  tell  me  something  about  Joseph,  and  your  plans  and 
your  and  our  friends?  It  was  a  miserable  device  to  give 
Government  a  shilling,  and  you  talk  of  idleness.  How  far 
have  you  got  in  the  Review  ?  I  saw  Miss  Seymour  the  other 
evening  at  the  Parkes's,  who  knows  you  a  little.  She  is  a  nice- 
looking  girl,  with  too  much  colour  and  a  nose  too  aquiline,  but 
seems,  notwithstanding,  a  talented  kind  of  person.  She  had 
been  magnetised  the  day  before  with  complete  success,  and  I 
met  her  the  day  after  at  M.  Dupotet's,  the  magnetiser's.  She 
was  not  magnetised  that  day,  her  mamma  thinking  it  too 
public.  It  was  a  pity,  you  know.  I  was  magnetised  the  day 
after,  having  taken  old  Black  with  me  for  precaution.  I  quite 
received  the  influence,  but  did  not  let  him  go  on  long  enough  to 
lay  me  asleep.  Some  other  cases  we  saw,  particularly  that  of  a 
cataleptic  person,  whom  he  attracted  about  the  room,  swaying 
her  with  his  hand  like  a  toy.  There  was  one  case  of  the 
epigastric  perception;  but  not  a  convincing  one.  A  member 
of  Parliament  placed  in  the  somnambulist's  hand  a  folded  paper 
of  the  new  workhouse  diet.  She  held  it  close  to  her,  then  tore 
it  up,  but  would  not  speak  of  it.  The  day  after,  when  again 
magnetised,  she  was  questioned  about  it,  and  gave  it  very 
exactly.  This  is  the  first  instance  on  record  of  a  person  getting  a 
stomachful  out  of  the  diet  of  the  new  pauper  system.  S.  Wood 


204  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

says  he  hopes  we  shall  soon  be  able  to  throw  the  Speaker 
in  a  state  of  somnambulism,  clap  a  motion  on  the  pit  of  his 
stomach,  and  get  him  to  give  it  to  the  House.  In  that  case 
it  will  not  be  necessary  to  give  notice  of  motions,  you  see. 
Speaking  of  the  House,  D'Israeli  nearly  killed  it  on  Thursday 
night.  You  have,  of  course,  seen  his  speech  in  Galignani. 
Can  you  conceive  the  impudence  of  the  Attorney-General,  not 
knowing  him  personally,  and  going  up  to  him  in  the  lobby, 
saying,  "  A  very  pleasant  speech  of  yours,  Mr.  Disraeli.  Will 
you  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me  what  Lord  John  held  beside  the 
keys  of  St.  Peter  ?  " 

"  The  red  cap  of  liberty,  sir."  * 

During  the  performance  Peel  quite  screamed  with  laughter. 
This  failure,  however,  did  not  prevent  both  Acland  and  myself 
from  hearing  our  own  voices  on  the  following  night,  both  as 
extempore  as  possible.  O'Brien  puts  it  about  that  Acland  went 
this  morning  in  state  to  St.  Paul's  to  return  thanks  for  his 
successful  debut.  Mine  was  just  what  I  wished,  good  of  its 
kind,  giving  promise  more  than  anything  else ;  an  earnest, 
almost  passionate  remonstrance  against  something  that  had 
just  been  let  fall,  and  lasting  about  five  minutes.  Stanley 
[Lord  Derby]  talked  of  the  "  powerful  and  feeling  language  of 
the  member  for  Pomfret ;  "  and  Sir  Robert  said,  "  Just  the 
jight  thing ;  "  and  I  smiled  inwardly  at  both  of  them.  The 
latter  has  gained  upon  me  last  week  by  the  dinner  he  gave  me 
yesterday,  not  entirely  for  the  material  of  it,  nor  the  compliment 
of  the  small  party,  but  from  his  free  demeanour  in  private 
society.  He  was  more  genial  than  I  should  have  thought 
possible,  and  told  stories  out  of  school  with  good  grace. 
Stanley  said  he  thought  the  case  of  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne 
the  most  important  and  remarkable  sign  of  our  day,  and  likely 

*  "  Notwithstanding  the  noble  Lord,  secure  on  the  pedestal  of  power, 
may  wield  in  one  hand  the  keys  of  St.  Peter  and — "  Here  the  hon. 
member  was  interrupted  with  such  loud  and  incessant  bursts  of  laughter 
that  it  was  impossible  to  know  whether  he  really  closed  his  sentence  or 
not. — See  Corning  Chronicle,  Report  on  !&Ir.  Pjsraeli's  Speech,  December 


ENTRANCE    UPON    LONDON   LIFE.  205 

to  have  most  vital  consequences.  I  tried  my  theory  of  the 
Conservatism  of  Popery  as  far  as  I  dared.  O'Brien  is  in  town 
as  a  petitioner.  If  the  election  is  declared  void,  he  will  have 
another  chance  of  being  murdered  to  prove  Irish  tranquillity. 
Unless  I  am  on  the  Pension  List  Committee,  it  is  not  unlikely 
I  shall  go  to  Court  on  Wednesday  and  pay  a  few  visits.  Direct, 
therefore,  still  to  Boodle's.  Love  to  all  lovable. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

Stafford  O'Brien,  writing  on  the  same  sheet  of  paper 
to  MacCarth}^,  says  : — 

I  was  in  the  House  on  Friday  when  Milnes  spoke,  or  rather 
answered  a  remark  of  Harvey's.  He  was  excellently  heard, 
his  manner  was  very  good,  and  utterly  devoid  of  anything  like 
mannerism  or  Milnesism,  which  I  feared.  Some  deem — of  course 
I  need  not  give  you  the  speech — that  Milnes  was  superior  to 
Acland,  inasmuch  as  he  showed  more  debating  power.  I  do  not 
hold  with  talkers  like  this ;  but  both  were  very  good,  and  we 
may  both  rejoice  that  our  two  young  Englanders  have  come  out 
so  well.  .  .  .  Milnes  has  decidedly  succeeded,  he  could  not 
tell  you  that  j  I  have. 

Many  and  warm  were  the  congratulations  offered  by 
his  friends  to  the  young  Parliamentarian.  MacCarthy 
naturally  was  one  of  those  most  eager  to  present  his 
felicitations.  Writing  from  Paris,  December  15th, 
1837,  he  says,  "The  first  news  of  the  speech  was  in 
Galignani,  whose  report  most  irreverently  stated  that 
'  Mr.  Acland,  Sir  Charles  Douglas,  and  Mr.  Milnes 
expressed  themselves  briefly  against  the  motion  ! '  The 
Times  gave  a  better  and  fuller  account,  and  your  own 
and  O'Brien's  testimony  at  last  came  to  make  me  quite 
happy.  I  had  been  in  a  great  fright  before  from  the 


206  THE    LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

tempestuous  damnation  of  Disraeli,  but  he  is  of  the 
junge  Judenihum,  not  the  young  England,  so  may  be 
damned." 

The  reader  will  not  have  failed  to  notice  the  intro- 
duction of  the  words  "  young  England  "  into  some  of 
the  foregoing  letters.  The  party  subsequently  known 
by  that  name  had  not  yet  any  recognised  life,  but  some 
at  least  of  the  young  men  who  were  subsequently  asso- 
ciated with  it,  as  well  as  others  who,  like  Milnes,  never 
joined  it,  had  evidently  already  fixed  upon  its  title,  and 
were  endeavouring  to  accustom  themselves  to  it. 

With  the  opening  of  1838  two  subjects  specially 
occupied  Milnes's  thoughts ;  one  of  these  was  a  matter  of 
purely  domestic  interest  which  affected  him  not  a  little, 
the  approaching  marriage  of  his  sister  to  her  cousin 
Lord  Galway.  The  earlier  letters,  from  which  I  have 
already  given  some  extracts,  will  have  afforded  the  reader 
some  faint  idea  of  the  depth  of  the  affection  which  Milnes 
entertained  for  his  sister.  Nothing  that  has  been 
printed  in  these  pages,  however,  can  afford  any  adequate 
conception  of  the  absorbing  love  which  he  felt  for  her. 
He  was  attached  to  his  cousin,  and  thoroughly  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  projected  marriage,  yet  he  regarded  it 
as  the  signal  for  something  like  his  own  bereavement. 
The  one  to  whom  throughout  his  life  his  own  heart  had 
been  most  closely  bound  was  now  to  enter  upon  a  new 
life,  with  new  ties  and  new  sympathies,  and  it  seemed  to 
him  for  the  moment  .that  with  her  marriage  must  end 
that  perfectly  frank  and  affectionate  intercourse  which 
had  hitherto  subsisted  between  them.  Only  those  who 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  20? 

knew  the  sensitiveness  of  his  nature,  and  the  depths  of 
his  feelings,  will  be  able  to  understand  the  emotion 
which  he  openty  displayed  in  view  of  his  sister's  approach- 
ing marriage.  For  months  before  and  after  the  event  he 
was,  as  his  letters  show,  the  victim  of  an  extreme 
depression,  and  it  was  long  before  he  entirely  recovered 
his  spirits.  Happily  that  recovery  was  accompanied 
— perhaps,  indeed,  it  may  have  been  occasioned — by  the 
consciousness  of  the  fact  that  his  forebodings  as  to  his 
future  relations  with  his  sister  had  been  entirely 
misplaced,  though  he  could  not  then  know  the  full 
truth — the  truth  which  time  alone  could  prove — that 
during  the  half-century  of  life  which  sfcill  remained  to 
him,  he  would  continue  to  find  in  her  at  all  times 
the  kindest,  truest,  and  most  devoted  of  friends  and 
confidants. 

The  other  subject  which  occupied  his  mind  at  the 
beginning  of  1838  was  the  publication  of  two  additional 
volumes  of  poetry.  One  of  these  was  "  The  Memorials 
of  a  Residence  on  the  Continent,  and  Historical  Poems." 
It  was  issued  by  Moxon,  prefaced  by  a  dedication  to 
his  sister  on  the  occasion  of  her  marriage.  The  other 
volume  was  produced  during  the  same  month,  but  for 
some  reason,  hardly  now  to  be  ascertained,  it  was  in 
the  first  instance  printed  for  private  circulation  only. 
It  was  entitled  "  Poems  of  Many  Years."  In  these  two 
volumes  some  of  the  best  productions  of  Milnes's  Muse 
are  to  be  found,  and  their  appearance  excited  interest 
not  only  among  his  personal  friends,  but  among  the 
reading  public  generally. 


208  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    H  OUGHT  ON. 

R.  C.  Trench  to  R.  M.  M. 

Bottley  Hill,  March  3,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  rejoice  much  at  the  prospect  of  your 
approaching  volumes.  Pray  send  me  a  copy  of  them.  Moxon 
will  give  you  with  this  note  a  copy  of  my  book  with  your  name 
inscribed.  You  will  see  I  have  stolen  and  used  three  or  four 
times  a  metre  which  I  think  I  first  heard  in  a  fine  Moorish  ballad 
of  yours  which  you  read  me  when  here.  Are  you  acquainted 
with  Riickert's  poetry,  concerning  which  MacCarthy  raves,  and 
of  which  I  have  given  three  or  four  specimens  ?  I  am  inclined 
to  think  very  highly  of  it  indeed ;  there  is  certainly  no  living 
poet  (pace  tua — but  I  have  not  yet  seen  your  book)  that  comes  at 
all  near  him.  Do  you  ever  see  Tennyson  ?  and  if  so,  could  you 
not  urge  him  to  take  the  field  ?  I  think,  with  the  exception  of 
myself  and  him,  everybody  sent  to  "  The  Tribute  "  the  poorest,  or 
nearly  the  poorest,  things  that  they  had  by  them.  But  I  suppose 
that  as  it  was  only  for  a  charity,  it  did  not  much  signify.  His 
poem  was  magnificent.  Let  me  have  a  line  or  two  from  you 
some  day  or  other  to  say  how  things  prosper  with  you,  and 

Believe  me  very  truly  yours, 

R.  C.  TRENCH. 

P.S. — Moxon  tells  me  you  are  going  to  review  me  in  the 
British.  For  all  praise,  blame,  counsel,  &c.,  I  thank  you 
beforehand. 

Milnes  sent  his  books  when  they  appeared  to  his 
friend  and  fellow-poet,  and  Trench  wrote,  April  26th, 
thanking  him  for  them,  and  expressing  his  admiration 
of  some  of  the  poems,  especially  of  the  "  very  beautiful 
lines  to  a  brother  and  sister,  which  moved  poor  Mr. 
Elton,  Hallam's  uncle,  to  tears,  and  made  him  carry 
away  the  book  to  show  them  to  his  daughter."  But 
both  Trench  and  his  wife  missed  some  of  their  greatest 


ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  209 

favourites,  and   could   only    suppose    that  Milnes   was 
reserving  them  for  another  volume. 

It  was  about  this  period  that  Carlyle's  correspond- 
ence with  Milnes  began. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  20^  May,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  should  like  greatly  to  come  to  you  on 
Tuesday  morning,  but  I  am  in  so  contemptible  a  state  of  health 
(as  you  may  see  in  the  Portman  Square  cock-pit  yonder)  that  I 
dare  promise  nothing.  Sometimes  I  wake  at  four  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  breakfast  as  soon  after  that  as  possible.  What  shall  I 
say  ?  Perhaps  you  will  let  me  try  to  come  and  hope  to  come, 
and,  if  I  fail  after  all,  will  view  me  with  due  pity  and  tolerance, 
knowing  well  enough  how  it  must  have  been  in  that  case.  I 
will  leave  it  so.  You  ought  to  lend  me  a  reading  of  your  book, 
since  it  is  not  for  sale.  I  could  do  very  well  with  it  at  present, 
and  will  accordingly  request  that  favour  of  you. 

Believe  me  always  yours  faithfully, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

Now,  too,  it  was  that  he  entered  into  personal  rela- 
tions with  Sydney  Smith,  for  whose  wit  he  had  so 
great  an  admiration,  and  whose  genuine  kindliness  of 
heart  he  understood  and  appreciated,  though  at  times  it 
was  veiled  under  a  somewhat  crusty  outward  demeanour. 
Sydney  Smith,  indeed,  does  not  appear  in  the  first 
instance  to  have  appreciated  Milnes  at  his  true  worth. 
His  English  prejudices  were  to  a  certain  extent  roused 
by  the  cosmopolitanism  of  the  young  man,  and  more 
than  once  he  took  occasion  to  turn  his  peculiarities  of 
manner  into  ridicule.  With  it  all  he  understood  and 
admired  the  warmth  of  Milnes's  heart  and  the  kindliness 
of  his  disposition. 


210  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGllTON. 

Sydney  Smith  to  R.  M.  M. 

33,  diaries  Street,  Berkeley  Square, 

June  im,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  began  years  ago  to  breakfast  with  Rogers, 
and  I  must  go  on  unless  he  leaves  off  asking  me,  but  I  must 
not  make  any  fresh  alliances  of  this  sort,  for  it  deranges  me  for 
the  whole  day,  and  I  am  a  very  old  gentleman,  and  must  take 
care  of  myself,  a  duty  I  owe  to  my  parish,  or,  rather,  I  should 
say,  two  parishes.  But  you  have,  luckily  for  you,  no  such  plea, 
and  therefore  you  must  come  and  breakfast  with  me  on  Saturday 
morning  next,  at  ten  o'clock  precisely.  Say  that  you  will  do 
this. 

Yours  truly, 

SYDNEY  SMITH. 

Sydney  Smith  was  not  unyielding  in  his  responses 
to  Milnes's  invitations,  and  though  he  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  a  constant  frequenter  of  his  breakfasts, 
he  showed  himself  there  at  times,  and  thus  made  the 
acquaintance  of  younger  men  than  those  whom  as  a 
rule  he  met  at  the  table  of  Rogers.  Whether  he  was 
altogether  happy  in  the  company  of  talkers  who,  if 
inferior  to  himself,  were  still  in  a  certain  sense  his 
rivals  in  his  own  field,  may  be  doubted.  Lord  Hough- 
ton  himself  has  told  us  in  his  "  Monographs  "  that  when 
some  enterprising  entertainer  brought  him  and  Mr. 
Theodore  Hook  together,  the  failure  was  complete  ;  and 
he  was  wont  to  be  somewhat  unjust  in  his  criticism  of 
other  wits.  But  whatever  might  be  his  defects,  his 
qualities  were  inimitable,  and  no  man  appreciated  them 
more  highly  than  did  Milnes.  It  was  not  merely  his 
humour,  brilliant  though  it  was,  which  Milnes  admired. 
His  large-heartedness,  his  grasp  of  great  principles,  bis 


ENTRANCE  UPON  LONDON  LIFE.  211 

love  of  freedom,  his  sympathy  with  the  victims  of  bad 
laws  and  of  national  injustice,  his  hatred  of  shams, 
were  all  dear  to  the  young  man's  heart,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  his  own  political  career  Milnes  was 
to  no  small  extent  under  the  influence  of  the  famous 
Canon  of  St.  Paul's.  The  friendship  of  the  two  men 
began  so  late  in  Smith's  life  that  it  lasted  but  a  few 
years,  Smith  himself  dying  in  1845.  It  may  not, 
however,  be  inappropriate  to  bring  together  here,  with- 
out regard  to  date,  some  of  the  more  characteristic  of 
Sydney  Smith's  letters. 

Sydney  Smith  to  JR.  M.  M. 

June  3th,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — If  you  want  to  get  a  place  for  a  relation, 
you  must  not  delay  it  till  he  is  born.  .  .  .  The  same  thing 
with  any  smaller  accommodation.  You  ask  me  for  tickets  on 
Wednesday  to  go  to  St.  Paul's  on  Thursday.  My  first  promise 
dated  1836.  I  would,  however,  have  done  my  possible,  but  your 
letter  did  not  arrive  till  Saturday  (Paulo  post).  The  fact  is,  I 
have  been  wandering  about  the  coast  for  Mrs.  Sydney's  health, 
and  am  taken  by  the  Preventive  Service  for  a  brandy  merchant 
waiting  an  opportunity  of  running  goods  on  a  large  scale.  I 
wish  you  many  long  and  hot  dinners  with  lords  and  ladies,  wits 
and  poets,  and  am  always  truly  yours, 

SYDNEY  SMITH. 


Sydney  Smith  to  R.  M.  M. 

July  23rd,  1840. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — If  you  have  really  any  intention  of 
paying  me  a  visit,  I  must  describe  the  locale.  We  live  six  miles 
from  Taunton,  on  the  Minehead  Road.  An  inn  at  Taunton  is  the 
London  Inn.  I  shall  be  at  home  from  the  end  of  July  to  the 


212  THE   LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

end  of  October,  or  rather  the  20th  of  October.  You  must  give 
me  good  notice,  and  wait  my  answer,  for  we  are  often  full  and 
often  sick.  It  is  but  fair  to  add  that  nothing  can  be  more 
melancholy  than  Combe  Florey ;  that  we  have  no  other 
neighbours  than  the  parsonism  of  the  country,  and  that  in 
the  country  I  hibernise,  and  live  by  licking  my  paws.  Having 
stated  these  distressing  truths,  and  assuring  you  that  (as  you  like 
to  lay  out  your  life  to  the  best  advantage)  it  is  not  worth  your 
while  to  come,  I  have  only  to  add  that  we  shall  be  very  glad 

to  see  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 

SYDNEY  SMITH. 

Sydney  Smith  to  R.  M.  M. 

Combe  Florey,  Feb.  Ikth,  1841. 

MY  DEAR  Sm, — I  am  very  much  obliged  by  your  kindness 
in  procuring  for  me  the  papier  cMmique.  Pray  let  me  know 
what  I  am  in  your  debt.  It  is  best  to  be  scrupulous  and  punc- 
tilious in  trifles.  I  should  be  very  unhappy  about  McLeod  and 
America  if  I  had  not  impressed  upon  myself  in  the  course  of  a 
long  life  that  there  is  always  some  misery  of  this  kind  hanging 
over  us,  and  that  being  unhappy  does  no  good.  I  console  my- 
self with  Doddridge's  "  Expositor  "  and  "  The  Scholar  Armed/' 
to  say  nothing  of  a  very  popular  book  called  "  The  Dissenter 
Tripped  Up."  I  read  with  great  pleasure  Lord  Fitzwilliam's 
letter  to  Marshall,  and  with  anything  but  pleasure  Marshall's 
absurd  and  mischievous  answer.  If  I  had  not  lost  the  inestim- 
able advantage  of  being  a  Yorkshireman,  I  would  comb  that  flax- 
dresser  into  some  comeliness  and  order. 

I  remain,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  faithfully, 

SYDNEY  SMITH. 

Sydney  Smith  to  R.  M.  M. 

56,  Green  St.,  May  llth,  1841. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  am  very  much  obliged  by  your  reserv- 
ing a  place  for  me,  but  I  have  a  party  of  persons  who  are  coming 


.ENTRANCE    UPON   LONDON   LIFE.  213 

to  breakfast  with  me — all  very  common  persons,  I  am  ashamed 
to  say,  who  see  with  their  eyes,  hear  with  their  ears,  and  trust 
to  the  olfactory  nerves  to  discriminate  filth  from  fragrance. 
Pray  come  to  us  on  Thursday,  and  (oh,  Milnes !)  save  the 

country ! 

Ever  yours, 

SYDNEY  SMITH. 

To  the  following  letter  some  words  of  introduction 
are  needed.  Written  in  1842,  it  has  reference  to  certain 
jocular  titles  given  to  Milnes  in  jest,  and  which  long 
clung  to  him.  Common  report  has  always  asserted  that 
the  author  of  these  names  was  Sydney  Smith.  The 
story  commonly  told  as  to  the  origin  of  one  of  them 
was  that  one  very  hot  evening  in  summer,  when  Lady 
Holland  and  a  large  party  of  friends  were  suffering 
from  the  stifling  atmosphere  at  Holland  House,  and 
a  general  dulness  had  crept  over  the  company,  Milnes 
was  seen  to  enter.  "  Ah !  here  comes  the  cool  of  the 
evening,"  cried  Sydney  Smith,  and  immediately  every- 
body grew  brighter,  and  new  life  seemed  to  be  infused 
into  the  party.  The  letter  below  replies  to  the  some- 
what angry  remonstrances  which  Milnes,  on  learning 
that  this  and  other  nicknames  had  been  applied  to  him, 
and  that  their  authorship  was  ascribed  to  Sydney  Smith, 
had  addressed  to  the  latter.  No  one  will  deny  that, 
severe  though  the  letter  may  be,  it  is  admirable  in  its 
way.  But  the  reader  who  may  be  inclined  to  sympathise 
with  Sydney  Smith  rather  than  with  Milnes  ought  to 
know  something  of  the  light  in  which  the  latter,  when 
age  had  increased  his  experience  and  added  to  his  wisdom, 
himself  regarded  the  reproof  he  had  received  in  his  youth. 


214  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

One  day  in  one  of  the  years  between  1870  and  1880, 
as  we  were  looking  over  the  crowded  bookshelves  at 
Fryston,  dipping  here  and  there  into  the  apparently 
inexhaustible  treasures  of  his  library,  Lord  Houghton 
took  down  one  of  the  volumes  of  Lady  Holland's 
"  Life  of  Sydney  Smith."  The  original  of  the  follow- 
ing letter  had  been  inserted  in  it,  and  Lord  Houghton 
himself  read  it  to  me,  not  only  with  the  greatest  good- 
humour,  but  with  undisguised  enjoyment  of  the  wit 
which  it  displayed.  "  Don't  you  think,"  he  said,  when 
he  had  finished  the  perusal,  "  that  that  was  an  admir- 
able letter  for  an  old  man  to  write  to  a  young  one  who 
had  just  played  the  fool  ?  "  Sydney  Smith,  with  his 
real  regard  for  Milnes,  would  himself  have  been  de- 
lighted if  he  could  have  seen  the  spirit  in  which  his 
sharp  rebuke  was  received.  Indeed,  it  must  be  noted 
that  even  at  the  time  it  caused  no  coolness  in  the 
friendship  of  the  two  men. 

Sydney  Smith  to  R.  M.  M. 

56,  Green  Street,  Grosvenor  Square,  April  22nd. 
DEAR  MILNES, — Never  lose  your  good  temper,  which  is  one 
of  your  best  qualities,  and  which  has  carried  you  hitherto  safely 
through  your  startling  eccentricities.  If  you  turn  cross  and 
touchy,  you  are  a  lost  man.  No  man  can  combine  the  defects 
of  opposite  characters.  The  names  of  "  Cool  of  the  evening/' 
"  London  Assurance/'  and  "  In-I-go  Jones  "  are,  I  give  you  my 
word,  not  mine.  They  are  of  no  sort  of  importance ;  they  are 
safety  valves,  and  if  you  could  by  paying  sixpence  get  rid  of 
them,  you  had  better  keep  your  money.  You  do  me  but  justice 
in  acknowledging  that  I  have  spoken  much  good  of  you.  I 
have  laughed  at  you  for  those  follies  which  I  have  told  you  of 


ENTRANCE    UPON  LONDON   LIFE.  215 

to  your  face ;  but  nobody  has  more  readily  and  more  earnestly 
asserted  that  you  are  a  very  agreeable,  clever  man,  with  a  very  good 
heart,  unimpeachable  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  and  that  you 
amply  deserve  to  be  retained  in  the  place  to  which  you  had  too 
hastily  elevated  yourself  by  manners  unknown  to  our  cold  and 
phlegmatic  people.  I  thank  you  for  what  you  say  of  my  good- 
humour.  Lord  Dudley,  when  I  took  leave  of  him,  said  to  me, 
"  You  have  been  laughing  at  me  for  the  last  seven  years,  and 
you  never  said  anything  which  I  wished  unsaid."  This  pleased 
me. 

Ever  yours, 

SYDNEY  SMITH. 

It  is  perhaps  hardly  necessary  to  explain  with  refer- 
ence to  one  of  the  names  given  above,  that  "  In-I-go 
Jones  "  had  its  origin  in  the  exploits  of  the  boy  Jones, 
who  in  the  early  years  of  the  present  reign  attained  a 
certain  celebrity  through  the  frequency  with  which  he 
managed  to  make  his  way,  unperceived  by  sentinels  and 
servants,  into  the  private  apartments  of  Buckingham 
Palace,  where  he  was  more  than  once  found  concealed 
under  a  sofa. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FIRST    YEARS    IN    PARLIAMENT. 

Disraeli  and  Milnes — Carlyle's  Lectures — The  Sterling  Club — Charles  Sumner — 
R.  W.  Emerson — Letter  from  Wordsworth— Growing  Friendship  with 
Carlyle — Visit  to  the  Pyrenees — The  London  Library  established — 
Reviews  Emerson's  Writings — A  Glimpse  of  Beau  Brummel  —  Milnes  in 
Paris — Friendship  with  the  King,  Guizot,  Thiers,  Lamartine,  and  De 
Tocqueville — Correspondence  with  Sir  Robert  Peel — Heine — Carlyle  at 
Fryston — "  One  Tract  More  " — Thackeray  in  Yorkshire — The  New 
Administration — Milnes  disappointed — Letter  to  Guizot. 

MILNES' s  Parliamentary  career  did  not  go  so  smoothly 
as  might  have  been  anticipated  from  his  first  success. 
Although  his  abilities  were  generally  recognised,  and 
much  was  expected  of  him,  he  undoubtedly  did  not 
make  such  an  impression  on  the  House  of  Commons  as 
he  had  hoped  to  produce.  Yet  in  his  first  days  of 
Parliamentary  life  he  was  courted  by  not  a  few. 
Disraeli,  who  was  then  looking  about  for  young  men  of 
good  family  and  fine  talents  with  whom  to  form  an 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  against  the  world,  turned 
in  the  first  instance  to  Milnes,  'and  proposed  to  him  that 
they  should  jointly  do  battle  in  the  arena  of  politics. 
"  No,"  said  Milnes,  "  two  of  a  trade  would  never  agree," 
and  the  project  fell  through.  In  politics,  at  all  events, 
Richard  Milnes  was  always  in  earnest,  whatever  might 
be  the  case  with  regard  to  his  private  or  his  social  life. 
It  was  upon  the  serious  aspect  of  public  affairs  that  he 


FIRST    TEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  217 

alone  cared  to  direct  his  attention.  His  father,  as  has 
been  seen,  was  anxious  that  his  son  should  achieve  that 
success  which  had  once  lain  within  his  own  reach. 
Milnes  himself  was  even  more  ambitious  of  political 
than  of  literary  distinction,  and  very  early  in  his 
Parliamentary  career  he  began  to  take  a  line  of  his 
own  upon  some  of  those  social  and  political  questions 
which  seemed  likely  to  rise  to  importance  in  the  future. 
He  was  troubled,  however,  by  the  comparative  non- 
success  of  the  speeches  which  he  made  during  the 
Session  of  1838. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

March  13^,  1838. 

I  wonder  whether  readiness  and  comfort  in  writing  to  one's 
friends  is  one  of  Carlyle's  symptoms  of  "  Health."  Certainly 
Goethe  and  Walter  Scott  both  wrote  most  freely  and  fully,  and 
I  at  this  moment  sit  down  with  difficulty  to  do  what  I  ought  to 
have  done  a  fortnight  ago.  But  then  you  write  just  as  eloquently 
and  pleasantly  when  just  out  of  a  spasm,  and  in  as  morbid  a 
state  of  mind  as  Rousseau  ever  dragged  through.  No ;  there  is 
something  more  in  the  matter  than  I  see ;  and  this  must  be  so, 
for  who  has  so  craving  an  appetite  for  sympathy  as  I  have? 
Who  so  fond  of  melancholy  gossip  ?  Good  things,  whether  of 
creation  or  invention,  are  dying  so  fast  within  me  that  I  can 
hardly  even  indite  a  letter.  I  only  know  I  felt  the  other  day 
that  when  my  sister  is  married  and  my  poems  printed,  my 
mission,  such  as  it  is,  is  well  over,  and  I  might  as  well  be  lost 
in  space  at  once  as  go  on  formulising  any  more.  I  took  care 
Carlyle  should  hear  your  objection  to  his  "  Cant."  I  doubt  not 
he  has  grinned  over  it  by  this  time.  He  is  to  give  a  course  of 
lectures  in  May  on  the  confined  subject  of  the  history  of  general 
literature.  I  get  more  and  more  nervous  as  to  speaking  in  the 
House,  Jt  is  improbable  that  I  shall  try  again  this  Session. 


218  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Had  my  Canada  and  Ballot  speeches  been  heard,  and  been 
successful,  it  would  most  likely  have  been  otherwise.  I  go  out 
as  much  as  I  want,  and  see  plenty  of  clever  and  agreeable  people, 
but  somehow  or  other  get  very  little  good  of  them.  The  thing 
that  has  caught  me  most  is  the  animal  magnetism  which  is 
slowly  progressing.  The  apostle  of  it  is  a  very  fine  simple  fellow, 
as  fanciful  and  exaggerative  as  an  enthusiast  ought  to  be. 
A  strong  attempt  is  making  to  prove  the  whole  thing  mere 
bawdry,  but  the  experiments  at  the  hospitals  defy  this.  My 
mother  and  sister  come  to  town  in  a  fortnight.  The  nozze  take 
place  the  week  after  Easter.  She  is  wonderfully  well.  A  book 
called  "  Froude's  Remains/'  just  published,  has  produced  much 
wonder,  pleasure,  and  scoffing.  They  are  the  posthumous  con- 
fessions of  a  young  Oxford  Churchman,  detailing  his  ascetic 
practices,  spiritual  progress,  and  dogmatic  difficulties.  I  do  not 
suppose  it  will  reach  Paris,  or  be  understood  if  it  did.  I  go 
on  with  small  "  young  Englands  "  on  Sunday  evenings,  which 
unfortunately  excludes  the  more  severe  members — Ac-land,  Glad- 
stone, &c.  I  really  think  when  people  keep  Friday  as  a  fast, 
they  might  make  a  feast  of  Sunday  ;  as  it  is,  Wood  and  his 
friends  have  only  two  Sundays  a  week  instead  of  one.  Miss  S. 
is  in  great  force,  and  seems  to  enjoy  going  out,  though  they 
know  but  few  people.  I  am  not  in  love,  for  if  I  was  I  should 
not  be  so  cross  and  nervous.  I  almost  fear  I  am  in  an  influenza 
instead.  .  .  .  The  best  things  current  are  that  Rogers  said 
of  Lady  Parke,  "  She  was  so  good  that  when  she  went  to  Heaven 
she  would  find  no  difference  except  that  her  ankles  would  be 
thinner  and  her  head  better  dressed  •"  and  Sydney  Smith*  to 
Landseer,  who  patronisingly  offered  to  let  him  sit  to  him  for  his 
picture,  " Is  thy  servant  a  dog  that  he  should  do  this  thing?" 
Also  Rogers  of  Jane  Davy,  "  that  she  was  so  dry  she  would  turn 
all  the  Deluge  into  toast  and  water."  Bulwer  has  brought  out 
an  exceedingly  pretty  play,  which,  owing  to  the  fewness  of  the 
characters,  is  very  well  acted.  Charles  Kean  I  think  a  sensible 

*  In  a  note  to  the  sketch   of  Sydney  Smith  in  the  "Monographs," 
Lord  Hoxighton  states  that  Lockhart  really  said  this. 


FIRST    YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  219 

and  gentlemanly  actor,  but  with  no  high  conceptions  or  means 
of  realising  them.  The  affair  between  Fitz —  and  the  C —  goes 
lingering  on.  People  know  for  a  fact  one  night  that  he  has 
been  refused,  and  he  is  dancing  with  her  the  next.  Poor  O'B. 
is  coming  to  town,  foiled  of  his  Rutlandshire  seat,  which  he  had 
looked  forward  to  for  years — not  but  that  a  little  misfortune  will 
be  of  use  to  him.  I  hardly  like  asking  you  to  write  on  when 
you  get  no  value  received  :  still 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

The  comparative  failure  of  his  speeches,  to  which. 
Milnes  alludes  in  the  foregoing  letter,  was  to  some 
extent  due  to  the  very  earnestness  of  purpose  which  he 
displayed  in  politics.  In  after-dinner  oratory  he  was 
known  to  be  one  of  the  easiest  and  most  graceful 
speakers  of  his  time,  but  the  case  was  very  different 
when  he  addressed  the  House  of  Commons.  He  always 
seemed  to  do  so  under  a  sense  of  constraint,  and  as  he 
had  modelled  himself  upon  the  old  style  of  political 
oratory,  he  gave  his  hearers  an  impression  of  affectation, 
which,  though  unfounded  in  fact,  was  decidedly  disad- 
vantageous to  him. 

JR.  M.  M.  to  Aubrey  de   Fere. 

House  of  Commons  (?  1838). 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — One  has  no  business  to  intrude  the 
hurdygurdy  of  a  London  mind  into  the  serene  and  graceful 
harmonies  of  your  meditative  life,  but  then  friendship  has  its 
courtesies  as  well  as  its  sensibilities,  and  to  leave  such  a  letter 
as  yours  unanswered  would  be  not  only  a  moral  crime  but  a 
social  error. 

Therefore,  I  must  write  you  somewhat,  and  you  must  take 
it  forgivingly  and  compassionately.  No  one  could  believe  that 


220  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

so  many  wise  and  pleasant  people  as  are  certainly  to  be  found  in 
this  big  town  could  be  living  together  so  long  and  getting  so 
little  good  from  one  another.  The  most  notable  things  in  your 
way  have  been  Carlyle's  lectures,  but  I  daresay  the  Spring  Rice 
letters  have  been  transcripts  of  them ;  they  have  been,  perhaps, 
more  interesting  than  anything  else,  as  all  picturesque  history 
must  be,  and  he  talks  as  graphically  as  his  "French  Revolu- 
tion ;  "  his  personality  is  most  attractive.  There  he  stands,  simple 
as  a  child,  and  his  happy  thought  dances  on  his  lips  and  in  his 
eyes,  and  takes  word  and  goes  away,  and  he  bids  it  God  speed, 
whatever  it  be. 

Tennyson  composes  every  day,  but  nothing  will  persuade 
him  to  print,  or  even  write  it  down.  ...  I  have  a  notion  of 
getting  to  Naples  for  the  autumn,  and  Rome  for  the  early 
winter.  That  you  could  and  would  go  with  me !  It  would 
nearly  do  me  as  much  good  as  all  this  frivolous  society  does  me 
harm. 

I  know  no  interesting  new  books  but  "  Froude's  Remains/' 
Wilberforce  is  fair  reading,  but  requires  much  skipping.  What 
a  curious  mixture  of  weakness  and  strength  he  was  !  It  gave 
me  great  pleasure  that  O'Brien  had  courage  to  break  out 
of  this  pleasure  den  into  the  free  air  of  his  own  occupations 
and  offices.  I  trust  he  already  feels  the  full  reward.  I  have 
seen  Monckton  several  times ;  we  have  spoken  often  about 
you;  he  seems  to  like  much  all  of  you  that  he  understands. 
People  puff  my  poems  more  than  enotigh,  and  now  I  think  it 
would  be  literary  dandyism  not  to  publish  them ;  so  I  shall 
make  them  saleable  next  spring ;  by  that  time  probably  the 
world  will  have  forgot  all  about  them,  and  hardly  a  copy  be 
sold. 

I  see  a  good  deal  of  the  Spring  Rices  off  and  on ; 
he  is  very  good-natured  to  me,  notwithstanding  that  I  have 
abused  the  Government  in  the  House.  H.  Taylor  is  said  to 
be  elaborating  something,  but  in  secret ;  I  believe  he  has  given 
up  Thomas  A'Becket.  A  Mr.  Kenyon  has  just  published 
some  decent  verses.  Have  you  ever  seen  any  of  Blake's  poetry? 


FIEST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  221 

I   think  of    publishing1   some  selections   from   him  which  will 
astonish  those  who  are  astoundable  by  anything  of  this  kind. 
All  kind  things  to  yours  from 

Your  affectionate  friend, 

R.  M.  M. 

His  old  friend  and  fellow- Apostle,  J.  W.  Blakesley, 
was  a  candidate  for  election  at  the  Athenaeum  Club  at 
this  time,  March,  1838,  and  on  his  election  he  wrote  to 
Milnes  as  follows  : — 

/.   W.  Blakesley  to  R.  M.  M. 

Trinity  College)  Cambridge, 

March  19^,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  have  no  doubt  that  I  owe  no  incon- 
siderable part  of  my  success  at  the  Athenaeum  on  Monday  last  to 
your  exertions,  and  if  you  are  conscious  that  such  is  the  case, 
draw  on  me  for.as  much  gratitude  as  you  think  your  due;  I  will 
honour  the  cheque.  Alfred  Tennyson  has  been  with  us  for  the  last 
week.  He  is  looking  well  and  in  good  spirits,  but  complains  of 
nervousness.  How  should  he  do  otherwise,  seeing  that  he  smokes 
the  strongest  and  most  stinking  tobacco  out  of  a  small  blackened 
clay  pipe  on  an  average  nine  hours  every  day  ?  He  went  off  to- 
day by  the  Wisbeach  to  Epping,  where  he  complains  that  there 
are  no  sounds  of  Nature  and  no  society ;  equally  a  want  of  birds 
and  men.  Have  you  seen  Trench's  new  volume  ?  Here  we  all 
think  that  the  clergyman  has  swallowed  up  the  poet,  and  also 
that  it  would  have  been  well  if  the  catastrophe  had  taken  place 
before  the  latter  had  written  his  last  book.  We  are  most  pain- 
f ullv  disappointed.  He  seems  to  expect  that  some  such  impression 
will  be  produced  among  his  own  intimates,  for  he  writes  me  a 
most  deprecatory  letter.  Also  his  children  have  one  and  all  the 
whooping-cough — a  distressing  spectacle,  he  informs  me,  for  a 
father.  If  you  see  Crabb  Robinson,  remember  me  to  him. 

Ever  yours, 

J.  W.  BLAKESLEY. 


222  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

It  was  during  this  summer  of  1838  that  Sterling 
founded  the  little  club  which  was  afterwards  known  by 
his  own  name,  though  in  the  first  instance  it  was  styled 
the  Anonymous  Club.  Milnes  and  most  of  his  early 
friends  were  among  the  members.  Spedding  was  the 
secretary.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Milnes  to  ask  Blakesley 
to  secure  some  additional  names  for  the  little  company. 

/.   W.  Blakesley  to  R.  M.  M. 

14,  Lansdowne  Place,  Brighton, 

July  16a,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Of  the  four  persons  to  whom  I  was  com- 
missioned to  communicate  the  project  of  our  new  club,  two  have 
taken  the  shilling  with  great  alacrity — namely,  Lyttelton  and 
Fielding.  From  Rogers  I  have  not  yet  heard,  although  I  wrote 
to  him  upon  the  subject  before  leaving  town ;  but  as  I  directed 
my  letter  to  the  Club,  it  is  very  far  from  impossible  that  it  has 
not  yet  come  to  his  hand.  From  Acland  I  had  a  letter  which 
makes  me  fear  that  he  will  not  join.  At  least,  if  it  came  from 
anybody  else  I  should  draw  that  conclusion  from  it.  He  says 
that  he  feels  that  whatever  he  might  gain  from  such  a  society, 
he  should  contribute  nothing  to  it.  This  in  any  other  person 
would  only  be  a  courteous  mode  of  declining,  but  Acland  really 
is  so  absurdly  modest,  and  has  such  an  unwarrantably  low  opinion 
of  his  own  talents  and  attainments,  that  in  him  such  an  expres- 
sion need  not,  I  think,  be  so  interpreted.  Pray  set  all  manner  of 
people  at  him  who  are  likely  to  have  any  influence  over  him. 
.  Neither  can  I  at  all  see  why  Trench  should  not  have 
been  requested  to  be  one  of  us.  I  do  not  at  all  agree  with 
Sterling's  view  of  the  case,  that  he  would  have  declined.  But, 
to  be  sure,  I  should  not  have  expected  any  such  course  from 
Maurice. 

Rogers  refused  to  join  the  club,  which  was  probably 
of  too  heretical  a  character  in  his  opinion  to  be  worthy 


FIRST    TEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  223 

of  his  patronage.  The  other  eminent  men  mentioned  in 
Blakesley's  letter,  including  Acland,  became  members, 
and  had  to  bear  with  their  colleagues  the  storm  of 
obloquy  which  was  soon  afterwards  raised  against  the 
Club  by  the  orthodox  religious  newspapers. 

During  this  summer  of  1838  England  received  a 
distinguished  visitor  from  the  United  States  in  the 
person  of  Charles  Sumner,  who  has  left  on  record  some 
lively  reminiscences  of  society  at  large  at  that  period, 
and  of  Milnes  and  his  friends  in  particular. 

"  Milnes,"  writes  Sumner,  describing  him,  "  a 
member  of  Parliament,  a  poet,  and  a  man  of  fashion,  a 
Tory  who  does  not  forget  the  people,  and  a  man  of 
fashion  with  sensibilities,  love  of  virtue  and  merit  among 
the  simple,  the  poor,  and  the  lowly." 

From  Sumner's  letters  it  is  evident  that  he  met 
Milnes  frequently  in  society  at  Holland  House,  at 
Eogers's,  at  Sydney  Smith's,  and  elsewhere  ;  and  he  tells 
how,  as  the  guest  of  Milnes  himself,  he  sat  opposite 
Bulwer  at  dinner;  Macaulay,  Julius  Hare,  O'Brien, 
and  Monteith  being  the  other  guests.  The  "  incessant 
ringing "  of  Macaulay's  voice  on  this  occasion  struck 
Sumner  more  particularly  by  the  contrast  which  it 
offered  to  the  lisping  and  effeminate  tones  of  Bulwer. 
Sumner  makes  one  statement,  in  the  accuracy  of  which 
it  is  difficult  to  believe.  "  Young  Milnes,  whose  poems 
you  have  doubtless  read,"  he  says,  "  told  me  that 
nobody  knew  of  his  (Carlyle's)  existence,  though  he 
(Milnes)  entertained  for  him  personally  the  highest 
regard."  That  Carlyle  had  not  yet  fully  established 


224  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

himself  and  his  fame  was  of  course  true,  but  it  was  hardly 
possible  for  Milnes  to  make  such  a  statement  as  that 
reported  by  Mr.  Sumner  with  regard  to  one  who  was 
even  then  a  lion  in  the  best  literary  and  intellectual 
society  in  London.  With  regard  to  the  second  part  of 
this  statement,  the  high  regard  which  Milnes  had  for 
Carlyle,  there  is  happily  no  room  for  doubt.  Curiously 
enough,  at  this  very  time  Carlyle  and  Milnes  were  in 
correspondence  on  the  subject  of  the  works  of  another 
American  writer  who  was  then  just  coming  into  notice 
— Mr.  Emerson.  Emerson  had  found  a  warm  friend  and 
admirer  in  England  in  the  person  of  Harriet  Martineau, 
and  by  her  means  his  name  had  been  brought  to  the 
notice  of  Carlyle  and  other  eminent  men  of  letters. 
Milnes  was  among  those  who  formed  a  genuine  admira- 
tion for  the  gifted  thinker  of  the  New  World,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  earliest  among  English  writers  to  print 
a  criticism  upon  Emerson's  essays. 

"  There  is  another  little  essay  of  Emerson's  the 
American,  entitled  '  Nature,' "  writes  Carlyle,  July  13th, 
1838,  to  Milnes,  "  I  think  John  Sterling  has  it.  Thank 
you  for  liking  that  man."  Milnes  was  anxious  to  see  the 
essay,  which  had  not  then  been  reprinted  in  this  country. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  Tuesday. 

DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — That  book  "  Nature/'  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
is  not  discoverable.  Search  has  been  made  within  the  house  and 
without,  hitherto  in  vain.  Somebody  has  it,  but  I  know  not 
who,  and  see  not  at  present  much  hope  of  knowing.  Perhaps 
Kenneth  of  York  Street,  Covent  Garden,  has  it  on  sale ;  if  not, 


FIRST    YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  225 

and  if,  as  the  probabilities  indicate,  I  cannot  unearth  it  here, 
what  chance  is  there  ?  It  seems  an  uneducible  case.  I  give  you 
two  fractions  of  an  American  book  catalogue,  where  you  find  a 
notice  of  "  Nature,"  and  notices  of  one  or  two  other  things 
perhaps  related  to  your  enterprise.  As  to  the  immortal  Revolu- 
tion book,  I  am  not  altogether  sure  but  the  piece  of  truth  I 
communicated  to  you  may  have  given  you  a  wrong  impression  of 
the  whole  truth.  Come,  therefore,  into  the  centre  of  the  business 
(me  duce)  since  we  have  got  within  the  circumference.  The 
American  edition  was  of  one  thousand,  price  two  dollars,  and,  as 
all  sold  off,  my  share  of  the  profit  £150.  American  booksellers 
sell  at  thirteen  per  cent.,  that  is  their  share  of  the  retail  price  of 
a  book  you  give  them  to  sell  for  you.  The  English  edition  of 
seven  hundred  and  fifty,  price  thirty-one  shillings  and  sixpence, 
is  also  all  sold  off  except  a  score  of  copies,  my  share  of  the  profit 
hitherto  zero,  though  the  bookseller  tells  me  he  has  cash  for  me, 
the  colour  of  cash,  which  he  hopes  "  will  prove  satisfactory  were  his 
books  once  balanced/'  English  booksellers  sell  at  the  rate  of 
forty-two  per  cent,  or  so,  I  find;  and  are  generally  reckoned  to 
be  knaves  more  or  less  besides.  It  is  a  commercial  phenomenon, 
their  business  here  at  present.  I  prepared  to  print  a  second 
edition  for  England  and  America  together.  This  is  a  veritable 
complete  state  of  the  case,  more  fit  for  a  Threadneedle  Street 
accountant  than  for  a  West  End  poetical  critic ;  which,  how- 
ever, I  impart  to  you  in  confidence,  that  what  you  do  see  good  to 
say  on  the  subject  may  be  said  with  entire  knowledge  of  it. 
My  notion  is  that  it  is  all  a  misere  worthy  to  be  left  in  pro- 
foundest  secrecy ;  unless,  perhaps,  you  will  recommend  one  to 
swallow  keys  (like  your  friend  Stello),  and  die  with  a  pen  in 
one  hand  and  a  crust  in  the  other.  Is  not  that  a  beautiful 
attitude  for  dying  now,  and  one  often  practised  in  hospitals  ? 
Gilbert  Sans-culotte !  I  will  desire  you  also  to  present  my 
compliments  to  Kitty  Bell  when  you  next  buy  buns  from  her. 
God  keep  you,  my  good  friend,  It  is  a  mad  world  this. 

Yours  very  truly  always, 

T.  CARLYLB. 


226  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

I  find  Emerson  quoted  in  a  strange,  philosophical,  gerund- 
grinder  farrago  of  a  book  from  Cambridge,  called  "  The  New 
Cratylus."*  They  tell  me  also  your  friend  Gladstone  has  a  page 
of  him. 

In  order  to  understand  the  bearing  of  the  foregoing-, 
two  facts  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  the  reader.  First, 
that  Emerson  had  befriended  Carlyle  in  his  relations  with 
the  American  publishers,  and  had  secured  for  him  the' 
favourable  returns  of  which  he  speaks  above.  And 
secondly,  that  a  Copyright  Bill  was  now  before  Parliament, 
in  which  Milnes  was  deeply  interested,  and  in  dealing 
with  which  he  acted  as  one  of  the  accredited  representa- 
tives of  English  letters. 

William  Wordsworth  to  R.  M.  M, 

Rydal  Mount,  Kendal, 

March  2Qt&,  1838. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  am  taking  a  step  which  I  am  all  but  per- 
suaded is  superfluous,  by  reminding  you  that  the  second  reading 
of  Sergeant  Talfourd's  Copyright  Bill  stands  for  April  llth, 
Wednesday.  You  will  not,  I  trust,  withhold  from  it  your 
strenuous  support.  The  Sergeant  tells  me  the  booksellers 
threaten  a  very  strong  opposition,  in  which  they  rely  upon  the  aid 
of  the  doctrinaires,  among  which  party  one  of  the  most  eminent, 
Mr.  Hume  (lucus  a  non  lucendo),  has  as  you  know  declared  against 
it  already  in  his  place,  a  pretty  place  for  such  an  ignoramus. 
I  have  read  two  pamphlets  against  the  bill,  both  abounding  in 
false  statements  as  to  the  facts,  and  the  larger  especially  in 
monstrous  opinions  and  shallow  reasoning.  As  to  perishable 
literature  the  motion  is  obviously  indifferent.  The  only  argument 
against  it  that  I  have  seen  which  is  entitled  to  the  least  considera- 
tion lies  in  the  fear,  or  rather,  as  some  assume,  the  certainty  that 
such  an  act  would  check  the  circulation  of  good  books ;  but  the 

*  The  etymological  work  by  Dr.  Donaldson. 


FIRST    YEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  227 

rapid  increase  of  readers  is  making  it  daily  more  and  more  the 
interest  of  authors  to  send  into  the  world  cheap  editions,  while 
there  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  with  men  of  moral  minds  the  hope 
of  their  children  and  grandchildren  being  in  some  degree  benefited 
by  their  labours  must  act  as  an  encouragement  to  their  industry, 
and  a  support  under  the  present  neglect.  What  we  want  is  the 
production  of  good  books.  Authors  as  a  body  get  as  much  as 
they  deserve  by  the  law  standing  as  it  now  does ;  but  how  does  it 
treat,  confining  myself  to  my  own  department,  men  like  Burns, 
like  Cowper,  like  Crabbe,  Coleridge,  Southey,  and  many  others  ? 
Too  much  of  this  !  How  came  Sir  R.  Inglis  to  say  the  other  day 
in  the  House  on  P.  Thomson's  motion,  that  Sir  Walter  Scott 
had  set  an  example  of  effectually  providing  against  French  piracy 
by  sending  his  life  of  Napoleon  over  in  sheets  to  Paris,  or  P. 
Thomson  to  think  he  had  replied  to  this  inconsiderate  observation 
by  saying  that  such  a  precaution  could  only  avail  for  one  edition? 
Why,  in  America  a  book  which  has  been  treated  for  with  an 
English  author  has  been  reprinted  in  an  inferior  type  in  thirty- 
six  hours.  .  .  .  Galignani  told  me  that  he  wished  English 
copyright  existed  in  France  to  prevent  these  injurious  competi- 
tions, so  that  piracy  is  in  some  degree  undermining  itself. 
I  remain,  dear  Sir, 

Sincerely  and  respectfully  yours, 

WILLIAM  WOBDSWORTH. 

Whilst  Milnes  was  thus  doing  his  duty  in  the  House 
of  Commons  by  the  order  to  which  he  was  proud  to 
belong,  his  social  life  was  gradually  expanding,  and  he 
himself  taking  an  increasingly  conspicuous  part  in 
society. 

I  had  designed  [writes  Carlyle  in  this  summer  of  1838]  to 
be  at  one  of  your  breakfasts  again  this  season,  and  see  once  more 
with  eyes  what  the  felicity  of  life  is ;  and  to-morrow,  unless  the 
destinies  withstand,  shall  be  the  day. 

Writing  to  his  brother  a  little  later,   Carlyle  tells 


228  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

how  at  this  breakfast  he  had  met  Bunsen,  Hallam, 
and  certain  other  celebrities  of  the  time.  Milnes  had 
indeed  taken  on  himself  the  task  of  making  Carlyle 
feel  at  home  in  the  great  world,  and  he  was  indefa- 
tigable in  compelling  the  fashionable  personages  of  the 
day  to  meet  the  Scotch  peasant  whose  genius  had 
already  stirred  the  intellectual  world  to  its  depths. 
D'Orsay  the  wit  and  the  dandy  appears  to  have  been 
one  of  those  who  were  thus  brought  within  the  orbit 
of  the  author  of  "  Sartor  Resartus."  But  there  were 
others  more  worthy  than  he  of  Carlyle's  friendship  whom 
Milnes  brought  to  the  great  writer's  feet.  Among  these 
was  Connop  Thiiiwall,  Milnes's  old  friend  of  Trinity 
days,  not  yet  a  bishop,  though  on  the  eve  of  becoming  one. 
Mr.  Froude  tells  how  the  first  meeting  between  Carlyle 
and  Thirl  wall  took  place  in  the  rooms  of  James  Sped- 
ding  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  Those  pleasant  and  homely 
rooms  were  a  favourite  resort  of  Milnes's,  and  they 
deserve  to  be  held  in  remembrance  by  all  the  admirers 
of  genius.  Milnes  himself  was  present  when  Carlyle  and 
Thirlwall  first  became  acquainted.  The  future  bishop  was 
described  by  Carlyle  as  "  a  most  sarcastic,  sceptical,  but 
strong-hearted,  strong-headed  man,  whom  he  had  a  real 
liking  for."  The  conversation,  which  turned  on  ques- 
tions of  theology,  was  broad  in  its  character,  and  if  we 
may  believe  Carlyle  the  orthodox  side  was  maintained  by 
Milnes.  "  He  gave  the  party  dilettante  Catholicism  and 
endured  Thirlwall's  tobacco."  By-and-by  an  additional 
bond  of  union  between  Carlyle  and  his  young  friend  was 
established. 


FIRST    YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  229 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  Wednesday  Morning,  1838. 

DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — We  are  packing  up  for  departure.  I 
cannot  say  as  to  Friday  morning,  but  I  will  decidedly  try  and 
hope.  This  morning  I  was  about  writing  to  you  at  any  rate.  In 
these  days  I  have  a  horse  and  go  galloping  along  through  all 
manner  of  lanes  and  green  shady  and  windy  desert  places,  much  to 
my  benefit.  I  had  set  my  heart  on  riding  with  you  one  day. 
To-morrow  it  must  be  if  at  all.  Could  you  appear  here,  steed 
fast,  without  further  warning  between  one  and  two  o'clock,  or 
with  warning  at  whatever  hour  and  place  you  like  to  name? 
We  might  be  merry  together  under  the  blessed  sunshine  for  a 
couple  of  hours. 

Yours  always  truly, 

'  *:  T.  CARLYLE. 

Prom  that  time  forward  Milnes  was  a  frequent  com- 
panion of  Carlyle  in  his  rides  about  London  and  its 
suburbs. 

In  the  autumn  Milnes  went  with  his  friend  Col  vile 
to  the  Pyrenees. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Lady  Galway. 

London,  August  3rd,  1838. 

DEAREST  HARRIETTS, —  ....  On  Saturday  week  I  start 
with  Colvile,  in  Mr.  Eldridge's  green  chariot  imperial  and  all, 
for  the  Pyrenees.  We  go  by  Southampton,  but  whether  by 
Havre  or  Jersey  and  St.  Malo  we  have  not  yet  decided.  Pray 
write  directly  to  Bordeaux,  as  it  can  be  forwarded  if  we  have 
got  further  on  our  way.  Colvile  must  be  back  by  the  1st 
November,  so  perhaps  we  could  combinare  to  meet  at  Paris, 
which  would  be  uncommon  pleasant.  I  suppose  you  will 
manage  to  get  over  the  Stelvio  while  the  Emperor  is  at  Inns- 
pruck,  but  I  fear  the  old  epileptic  will  jostle  you  a  good  deal 
There  has  been  a  talk  these  few  days  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 


230  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

going  to  Milan  as  Extraordinary.  I  knew  he  was  going  to  the 
baths  at  Aix  in  Savoy  for  his  health,  and  probably  the  report  is 
nothing  more  than  this.  I  wish  you  would  get  me  any  new 
novel  of  Tieck's  that  may  have  come  out,  and  anything  that 
Windischmann  recommends.  Do  not  make  yourself  sick  with 
"  knodels "  at  the  Hirsch,  but  eat  them  by  all  means  :  they 
were  wunderschon,  if  I  remember  right.  A  review  of  my  poems 
in  the  Blackwood  this  month.  The  editor  says  he  remembers 
hearing  a  man  of  that  name  speak  surpassingly  well  in  Parlia- 
ment some  thirty  years  ago,  and  wonders  if  he  is  the  poet ;  on 
a  little  reflection,  he  guesses  it  is  his  son,  and  he  is  not  far 
wrong.  Both  the  Westminster  and  Blackwood  quote  "  The  Lay 
of  the  Humble."  Do  you  remember  my  reading  it  to  you  in 
the  wee  drawing-room  at  Venice  over  the  fire  the  night  after  I 
came  from  Greece,  when  you  told  me  you  didn't  want  to  hear  it 
at  all  ?  ....  I  expect  a  deal  of  good  poems  from  my  trip  if  I 
can  only  disembarrass  myself  of  disagreeable  thoughts,  and  let 
myself  go  quietly  and  in  the  fresh  air,  and  be  content  with 
talking  to  mountains  without  wishing  for  wise  or  fine  people  to 
answer  me.  London  is  not  at  all  unpleasant  if  one  was  not 
fidgeting  to  be  somewhere  else :  in  climate  and  society  it  is 
about  February.  Corky*  has  had  parties  of  all  kinds ;  I  dine 
there  to-day  to  meet  the  John  Russells  and  a  world  of  Whigs. 
She  wants  to  give  breakfasts  like  mine,  but  the  one  last  week 
was  quite  a  failure.  Nobody  knows  when  Parliament  will  be 
up;  the  Lords  will  have  to  sit  some  time  after  us.  I  don't 
know  whether  my  father  has  written  to  you ;  he  makes  no  great 
complaint  about  the  hay,  but  it  cannot  have  been  well  got  in 
amid  all  this  wet.  I  believe,  to  make  an  almanack,  you  have 
nothing  to  do  but  put  down  "  Rain,  rain,  rain/'  Esterhazy  has 
left  town.  Mind  and  ask  him  directly  you  get  to  Milan  by 
word  or  letter  to  get  the  introduction  to  Metternich,  and  ask 
Zichy  to  introduce  you  to  Madame  Metternich.  If  you  make 
great  love  to  the  old  man,  he  may  make  you  "  dama  della  croce 
stellata."  We  have  set  a-going  a  new  dining  club,  which 

*  The  Dowager  Countess  of  Cork — his  maternal  aunt. 


FIRST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  231 

promises    well.     Twenty   of    the   most   charming   men    in   the 
universe  met  last  Tuesday.     They  won't  call  it  Young  England, 

however'  Your  affectionate 

R. 


To  the  Same. 

Bordeaux,  Aug. 
MY  DEAE  HARUIETTE, — Your  pleasant  letter  came  safe 
yesterday,  and  glad  I  was  to  hear  you  are  getting  on  so  pro- 
sperously. If  emperors  are  riding  over  you  before  you  get  into 
the  Tyro*!,  what  will  it  be  at  Milan  ?  You  certainly  snub 
Munich  too  much,  and  ought  to  have  spent  two  days  on  each 
of  the  buildings.  The  frescoes  in  the  new  palace  can  hardly  be 
seen  through  in  one.  It  is  altogether  «,s  well  that  you  did  not 
go  in  the  green  chariot,  though  I  must  say  that  no  carriage 
could  go  more  easily  than  it  has  done.  Two  steps  went  one 
day,  a  brace  the  next,  a  bolt  the  one  after,  and  so  on — all  so 
quietly  you  would  never  have  known  it.  However,  springs  and 
wheels  keep  pretty  well  together,  which  is  the  essential  part; 
but  the  great  evil  we  have  to  complain  of  is  the  cold.  The 
southerer  we  go,  the  colderer  it  gets.  Last  night  we  had  to 
wear  pea-jackets,  and  you  hardly  see  a  window  open  at  noon. 
Chill  showers  meet  us  here ;  what  shall  we  have  in  the  moun- 
tains? The  journey  was  not  uninteresting.  Brittany  nobly 
wooded  and  richly  cultivated,  but  the  people  and  the  accommo- 
dation disagreeable.  In  La  Vendee  the  inns  were  better, 
though  the  "  outs  "  were  not  so  striking.  The  towns  (Nantes, 
La  Rochelle,  &c.)  were  sightworthy  in  their  way,  mostly  for 
churches  and  fortifications.  This  is  a  very  palatial  city — a  sort 
of  French  Venice.  The  society  is  all  in  the  mountains,  but  we 
have  caught  a  Cambridge  friend,  who  has  settled  here,  who 
lionises  and  dines  us.  The  latter  function  is  finely  performed 
here.  We  saw  Robert  le  Diable  last  night  in  a  glorious  theatre, 
but  not  over-well  sung.  On  Monday  we  intend  starting  for  Pau, 

and   thence   up   to   the   different   baths Remember   to 

inquire  for  all  your  old  friends  at  Milan,  especially  Madame 


232  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUOHTON. 

Petrarchi,  and  distribute  my  regards  very  liberally We 

are  persecuted  on  the  road  by  a  wild  Irish  heiress,  who  travels 
with  a  menagerie,  never  wears  gloves,  shoots  with  a  pistol,  and 
eats  walnuts  in  garlic.  She  has  taken  me  rather  into  favour, 
and  sends  me  the  Morning  Post.  I  remember  her  place  not  far 
from 's.  The  astonishment  of  the  French  at  her  is  delight- 
ful. One  gets  partridges  for  dinner  without  shooting  them,  but 
they  have  very  little  flavour.  You  say  nothing  about  our  meet- 
ing at  Paris,  but  I  hope  you  will  not  hurry  away  from  Italy.  I 
shall  write  from  the  Pyrenees. 

Yours  and  George's  ever  affectionate 
E.  M.  M. 

'To  the  Same. 

Bagneres  de  Bigorre,  Sept.  20^A,  1838. 

DEAREST  HARRIETTE, — Your  letter  came  into  my  hands 
to-day.  I  was  very  thankful  for  its  good  contents,  and  hasten 
to  tell  you  so,  though  probably  you  have  left  Milan  by  this 
time,  and  I  know  nowhere  else  to  direct  to.  I  read  the  account 
of  the  Como  fete  in  the  French  papers,  and  was  in  one  of  my 
fidgets  that  you  might  have  missed  it.  As  Sir  Frederick  Lamb 
gave  you  one  of  his  dinners,  which  are  so  renomme,  he  most 
probably  gave  you  tickets  for  everything.  From  the  descrip- 
tion, the  Coronation  itself  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much 
more  striking  than  the  other  spectacles.  We  have  made  the 
tour  of  the  baths,  and,  considering  the  lateness  of  the  season, 
have  been  particularly  fortunate  in  our  weather.  Indeed,  we 
have  not  been  kept  at  home  a  single  day  since  we  reached  Pau. 
As  for  my  physic,  I  am  confirmed  in  my  opinion  that  air  and 
exercise  (the  diseases  the  post-horses  die  of)  are  not  sufficient  to 
keep  me  well,  for,  notwithstanding  my  equitation  and  mountain 
air,  I  have  had  more  indigestion  and  uncomfortableness  than 
usual  in  the  same  time  amid  London  dinners  and  doziness.  Just 
now  I  am  well  enough,  and  recovering  from  a  bad  sprained 
ankle,  which  I  got  from  dancing  the  cachuka  down  a  green  alp 
which  was  not  meant  for  it.  The  scenery  and  all  that,  we  will 


FIRST    YEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  233 

talk  about  at  Serlby  at  Christmas.  On  the  whole,  I  prefer  it 
to  Switzerland  :  less  grandeur  perhaps,  but  far  more  varying 
and  southern  in  its  culture  and  outlines.  There  is  a  bain  called 
San  Sauveur  which  I  shall  certainly  come  to  when  I  am 

crippled  with  gout  and  sick  of  the  world Pray  do  not 

hurry  out  of  Italy,  however  Galway  may  hear  the  Squire 
hollaing  for  him.  Make  travelling  so  pleasant  to  him  that  we 
may  all  see  Constantinople  next  autumn  if  you  are  strong 
enough.  The  bath  season  is  over;  so  we  have  literally  not  seen 
a  soul  to  speak  to.  I  write  to-day  to  Lucca,  as  you  may  be 
there,  for  all  I  know.  They  have  taken  away  Dr.  Hooke's  chap- 
laincy for  the  sermon  you  heard  him  preach,  and  which  I  could 
see  nothing  in  to  talk  about.  We  go  hence  to  Turin,  paying  a 
visit  on  our  way  to  some  friends  of  MacCarthy's,  if  they  are  at 
home;  thence  to  Paris  by  some  road  or  other.  Colvile  must  be 
in  town  by  the  1st  of  November. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

Among  the  friends  of  this  period  with  whom  Milnes 
was  most  frequently  brought  in  contact  were  the  two 
Miss  Berrys.  These  famous  ladies,  who  had  known  and 
been  loved  by  Horace  Walpole,  were  a  link  between  the 
society  of  the  nineteenth  and  that  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  "  They  have  been  running  about  Europe  ever 
since  the  days  of  Louis  Quatorze,"  was  the  remark  made 
about  them  Jby  one  of  Milnes's  friends.  For  a  period  far 
exceeding  that  of  the  common  span  of  human  life  they 
had  been  intimate  with  all  that  was  best  and  brightest 
in  European  society.  It  was  no  slight  tribute  to  the 
character  and  qualities  of  Milnes  himself  that  he  should 
have  been  received  hy  them  as  a  favoured  friend,  should 
have  been  welcomed  to  their  house  in  Curzon  Street, 
and  should,  after  a  long  interval  of  years,  have  taken  up 


284  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

the  rdle  once  filled  by  Horace  Walpole.  After  their 
death  it  was  the  hand  of  Milnes  that  penned  a  brief 
memoir  in  which  their  remarkable  story  was  given  to 
the  world,  as  well  as  an  elegiac  poem  which  did  justice 
to  their  many  virtues. 

There  was  a  serious  piece  of  business  in  which 
Milnes  took  an  active  part  towards  the  close  of  the 
year  1838,  in  conjunction  with  Carlyle  and  other 
friends.  Carlyle  had  been  much  troubled  by  the  want 
of  a  really  good  subscription  library  in  London.  The 
national  library  in  the  British  Museum  was  even 
then  admirable  in  its  way,  but  no  one  was  allowed  to 
remove  a  volume  from  the  reading-room,  and  the 
treasures  of  which  the  library  boasted  were  not  therefore 
accessible  to  those  who  wished  or  who  were  com- 
pelled to  study  at  home.  Carlyle  sought  to  enlist 
the  sympathies  of  his  friends  in  a  movement  for  the 
formation  of  a  new  library,  which  should  supply  the 
want  he  had  felt  so  sorely.  He  had  little  difficulty  in 
rallying  round  him  an  enthusiastic  band  of  supporters, 
amongst  whom  none  was  of  better  service  than  Milnes, 
though  in  the  first  instance  he  had  been  somewhat 
sceptical  regarding  the  scheme. 

James  Spedding  to  R.  M.  M. 

Oxford  and  Cambridge  University  Club, 

January  22nd,  1839. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — What  we  wish  Lord  Northampton  to  do 
is  simply  this.  If  he  be  willing  to  become  a  shareholder  in 
the  proposed  institution,  to  allow  his  name  to  be  announced 
as  a  supporter  of  it.  The  reason  why  the  proposal  cannot  be 


FIRST    YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  235 

circulated  in  its  present  state  is  that  it  wants  the  sanction  and 
guarantee  of  some  known  and  conspicuous  names.  People  will 
say,  who  is  the  getter-up  of  the  project,  what  security  is  there 
that  it  is  not  a  job,  a  booksellers'  speculation  or  a  fudge  ?  Nobody 
could  ask  such  a  question  if  the  names  of  Lord  Lansdowne,  Lord 
Northampton,  Lord  Aberdeen,  Mr.  Hallam,  Mr.  Rogers,  &c. 
&c.,  were  attached  to  it  as  patrons  or  parties  interested. 

I  do  not  think  your  objections  .very  strong,  though  I  have 
heard  them  urged  by  many  people  on  the  scheme  being  first  pro- 
posed to  them.  A  library  on  the  proposed  principle  would  be 
worth  a  great  deal  to  a  limited  number  of  subscribers  though  it 
were  not  immense ;  if  the  number  of  subscribers  were  very  large 
the  funds  would  be  very  large  also,  and  the  library  might  be 
immensified  to  any  extent.  As  for  Club  libraries,  they  are  all 
open  to  the  objection  that  the  books  cannot  be  taken  out,  and 
Clubs  are  not  places  in  which  one  can  read  to  much  purpose. 
Besides,  though  there  may  be  few  literary  men  who  do  not  belong 
to  some  Club  or  other,  there  are  many  literary  men  who  have 
wives  and  families  quite  capable  of  reading  books  if  they  could 
get  them.  Consider  how  many  houses  there  are  in  London 
inhabited  by  rational  beings  who  can  read  and  write,  yet  into 
which  no  book  can  find  its  way  unless  it  be  either  bought,  or 
borrowed  from  a  friend,  or  circulated  from  a  new  public  library. 
In  some  of  these  they  make  you  a  present  at  the  end  of  the  year 
in  return  for  your  subscription  of  a  certain  number  of  volumes, 
stipulating  only  that  they  are  to  be  chosen  from  among  the  books 
belonging  to  the  library  which  have  "fallen  out  of  demand/' 
Alford  got  Hallam's  "  Constitutional  History "  in  this  way. 
Neither  do  I  foresee  any  insuperable  difficulty  in  making  people 
conform  to  the  regulations  with  regard  to  time,  &c.  If  they  do 
not  conform  you  turn  them  out,  and  consider  their  money  as 
your  own.  In  short,  why  should  it  be  harder  to  get  books  back 
in  a  reasonable  time  than  it  is  in  the  Cambridge  Library,  for 
instance  ?  The  bottom  of  my  sheet  reminds  me  to  leave  off.  I 
have  not  yet  heard  the  result  of  Rogers's  exertions.  Carlyle  is 
in  hope.  Yours  ever, 


236  THE   LIFE    OF   LOED    HOUGHTON. 

That  it  should  have  been  necessary  to  address  such 
arguments  as  those  contained  in  the  foregoing  letter  to 
a  man  like  Milnes,  concerning  a  project  towards  which 
all  his  sympathies  must  have  been  naturally  drawn, 
is  perhaps  as  strong  a  proof  as  could  be  wished  of  the 
inherent  conservatism  of  human  nature.  Of  course 
Milnes  put  aside  the  objections  he  had  characteristically 
urged  against  an  undertaking  of  which  at  the  bottom  of 
his  heart  he  must  have  approved,  and  he  did  his  best  to 
secure  substantial  patronage  for  the  scheme. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  Monday. 

DEAR  MILNES, — I  think  you  should  certainly  get  the  hole- 
and-corner  people  brought  together  some  day  this  week  if  possible. 
Let  us  not  waste  our  feeble  glimmer  of  zeal  in  battling  with  the 
dull  recusancy  of  Mr.  A.  and  Mr.  B.  Let  us  see  one  another 
face  to  face,  and  discover  whether  the  half-dead  embers  already 
gleaned  will  not  kindle  into  red  when  brought  together ;  or  on  the 
whole,  what  is  to  be  done  by  way  of  fair  experiment.  As  to  that, 
I  long  to  see  the  matter  either  in  decided  motion  or  else  dead  and 
ended.  "  If  London  must  lie  bookless,  Heaven  and  earth  will 
witness,"  &c.  &c.  Would  not  Saturday,  a  non-parliamentary 
day,  answer  ?  I  thought  to  have  seen  you  yesterday  when  I  left 
Lamennais.  Cannot  you  drive  here  any  morning  or  afternoon  ? 
Till  two  o'clock  I  am  here,  and  after  five  almost  always.  Alas ! 
my  friend,  what  a  horrible  blockhead  of  a  world  this  is ! 

Ever  truly, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

In  spite  of  the  discouragements  which  they  had 
encountered,  Carlyle  and  his  friends  triumphed  even- 
tually, though  it  was  not  until  twelve  months  after  the 


FIRST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  237 

foregoing  letter  was  written  that  a  meeting  was  held  in 
the  Freemasons'  Tavern,  at  which  Thirlwall,  Bulwer, 
Gladstone,  Cornewall  Lewis,  Spedding,  Yenables,  and 
Milnes,  together  with  a  fair  sprinkling  of  the  peerage, 
joined  Carlyle  in  forming  the  great  and  admirable  institu- 
tion now  known  to  the  world  as  the  London  Library. 

During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1838  Milnes  saw 
a  great  deal  of  Charles  Sumner,  besides  making  the 
acquaintance  of  a  still  more  illustrious  citizen  of  the 
great  Republic,  Daniel  Webster. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  deep  interest 
which  he  took  in  Emerson  and  his  writings.  He  had, 
indeed,  by  means  of  his  own  pen,  sought  to  enlarge 
the  circle  of  English  readers  of  the  works  of  the 
American  philosopher.  At  that  time,  however,  Emer- 
son was  only  known  to  his  English  admirers  by  his 
"Essays,"  and  it  was  to  supply  the  deficiency  in  per- 
sonal knowledge  that  Charles  Sumner  wrote  to  Milnes 
as  follows : — 

Charles  Sumner  to  R.  M.  M. 

Travellers'   Club,  March  %nd,  1839. 

DEAR  MILNES, — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  is  one  of  three 
brothers,  all  quite  remarkable  persons,  and  he  is  the  only 
survivor.  The  other  two  died  young,  but  everybody  hoped 
great  things  of  them.  Their  father,  I  think,  was  a  country 
clergyman,  passing  rich  on  little  more  than  £30  a  year.  They 
all,  however,  received  good  educations,  and  were  distinguished 
scholars  in  our  oldest  and  best  University — that  of  Cambridge. 
Ralph  must  be  now  about  thirty-eight  years  old.  He  has 
studied  theology,  has  been  settled  (that  is  the  American  word  to 
express  the  idea)  as  pastor  of  an  Unitarian  congregation  in 
Boston ;  was  much  liked  in  this  character^  but  speculated  top 


238  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

deeply  even  for  Unitarians ;  pushed  his  beliefs  and  unbeliefs 
very  far ;  rejected  much  of  the  Christian  faith ;  espoused  much 
of  the  Swedenborgian ;  was  disinclined  to  administer  the  Sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  then  parted  from  his  congrega- 
tion in  Boston.  This  was  about  six  years  ago ;  he  then  retired 
to  a  little  country  house  at  Concord,  about  twenty  miles  from 
Boston,  within  sight  of  the  spot  where  the  first  British  soldier 
fell  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Here  he  has  kept  ever 
since — thinking,  reading,  and  writing ;  still  regarded  as  a 
Christian  clergyman,  but  without  any  charge.  During  the 
winter  months  delivering  lectures  in  Boston,  in  character  not 
unlike  Carlyle's  here,  and  to  audiences  brought  together  in  the 
same  way,  and  for  the  double  purpose  of  spreading  knowledge 
and  getting  money.  A  series  of  biographies  formed  one  of  his 
courses,  and  he  has  several  times  treated  of  the  true  nature  and 
uses  of  history,  and  of  the  way  in  which  it  should  be  written. 
I  need  give  you  no  hint  about  his  style  or  his  writings,  for  you 
know  as  much  of  both  as  I  do.  As  a  speaker  in  delivering  his 
lectures,  sermons,  or  discourses  he  is  remarkable.  His  voice  is 
good,  his  enunciation  clear  and  distinct ;  his  manner  his  own, 
but  very  striking.  He  is  always  self-possessed,  and  his  strange 
fancies  fall  upon  the  ear  in  the  most  musical  cadences.  His 
voice  is  now  low  and  then  again  high,  like  an  ^Eolian  harp :  but 
this  is  natural,  not  affected,  and  I  think  anywhere  before  an 
educated  audience  he  would  be  deemed  a  remarkable  speaker^ 
In  person  he  is  tall  and  graceful.  Some  people  think  him 
slightly  mad  (one  of  his  brothers  died  insane,  and  the  other 
brother  had  been  insane  before  his  death),  others  think  him 
almost  inspired.  Old  men  are  not  prepared  to  receive  or  listen  to 
or  read  his  thoughts.  The  young  of  both  classes  think  highly 
of  him.  He  has  a  great  influence  over  many  of  the  young 
minds  of  my  acquaintance,  who  always  couple  him  with  Carlyle. 
I  think  him  neither  mad  nor  inspired,  but  original,  thoughtful, 
and  peculiar,  with  his  mind  tinged  with  some  habits  of  specula- 
tion that  are  less  practical  than  beautiful,  and  with  a  fearless 
honesty  that  makes  him  speak  what  he  thinks,  counting  little 


FIRST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  239 

any  worldly  considerations.  In  other  times  he  might  have  been 
a  philosopher  or  a  reformer,  but  he  would  always  have  been 
tolerant  and  gentle,  and  he  would  have  gone  into  uncomplaining 
exile  if  the  powers  that  were  bade  him.  I  have  hastily  dotted 
down  some  things  about  Emerson  according  to  your  wish.  I 
hope  I  have  not  said  too  much.  When  we  meet  in  conversation 
I  can  explain  whatever  is  left  uncertain  in  your  mind.  I  should 
not  forget  to  state  that  he  has  been  twice  married.  His  first 
wife  died  young — under  twenty,  I  think.  By  her  he  had  a  small 
property,  which  is  to  him  an  independence,  enabling  him  to 
gratify  all  those  "  small  desires  which  ask  but  little  room,"  and 
which  fill  the  life  of  a  retiring  literary  man  in  all  countries,  and 
particularly  in  America.  Emerson  had  no  children  by  his  first 
wife.  He  loved  her  and  lamented  her  much,  and  cherished  her 
memory  in  the  Swedenborgian  way.  He  has  since  married 
again  a  person  who  sympathises  with  him.  When  his  child  was 
born,  about  two  yeai's  ago,  men  and  women  were  astonished,  and 
inquired  if  the  infant  has  wings.  This  is  enough. 

Ever  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNEB. 

Milnes,  having  written  his  review  of  Emerson,  was 
somewhat  at  a  loss  in  what  quarter  to  find  the  necessary 
publicity  for  it,  and  he  applied  to  Carlyle  for  advice 
upon  the  subject.  The  latter  willingly  undertook  to 
put  his  friend  in  communication  with  the  editors. 

T.  Carlyle  to  JR.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  ZSM  Dec.,  1839. 

DEAR  MILNES, — You  are  a  man  full  of  blarney  and  quiz,  but 
you  have  done  well  to  write  on  Emerson.  I  applied  to  Mill 
to-day ;  shall  get  his  answer  soon,  and  send  it  off  to  you 
straightway.  Failing  Mill,  would  you  consent  to  Eraser? 
Consider  this  till  you  hear  from  me  again.  One  way  or  other 
the  piece  must  be  printed.  Emerson,  I  understand,  is  writing  a 
book.  I  have  forgotten  the  subject,  or  never  knew  it. 


240  THE    LIFE    OF    LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Poor  Miss  Martineau  has  not  only  lost  her  ear-trumpet,  but 
her  health.  They  tell  me  she  is  in  a  very  infirm  though  not  a 
dangerous  state  with  her  brother-in-law  at  Newcastle.  In  haste, 

Ever  truly  yours, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

It  was  in  the  Westminster  Review  that  the  article  on 
Emerson  was  printed.  It  was  a  generous  and  dis- 
criminating introduction  of  the  American  thinker  to  a 
new  circle  of  friends  and  readers,  and  it  elicited  the 
warm  thanks  of  those  who  were  already  interested  in 
Emerson's  writings. 

You  have,  indeed,  my  friend  [writes  Carlyle],  written  a  very 
beautiful  article.  There  is  a  tint  of  poesy,  courtesy,  humane 
insight,  a  soft  graceful  coherence,  an  undertone  of  pervading 
melody,  which  I  like  and  call  good.  You  will  write  a  book  one 
day  which  we  shall  all  like.  In  prose  it  shall  be  if  I  may  vote.  A 
novel,  an  emblematic  picture  of  English  society  as  it  is  ?  Done 
in  prose  with  the  spirit  of  a  poet,  what  a  book  were  that ! 

Emerson  may  object  that  he  knew  of  your  objections  before- 
hand, that  one  needs  in  this  world  of  antagonisms  to  smite  only 
one  side  of  a  thing,  while  so  many  millions  are  everywhere 
assiduously  smiting  the  other.  To  which  you  can  answer,  "  You 
knew  the  objections  would  come.  Well,  here  they  do  come  ! " 

Another  objection,  that  of  setting  up  one  Carlyle  in  the 
good  Emerson's  daylight  there  in  that  unwarrantable  manner, 
seems  to  me  still  graver.  How  are  you  to  answer  that  ?  Emerson 
will  naturally  see  the  article  by-and-by,  but  a  copy  sent  from  you 
would  undoubtedly  be  welcome  to  him ;  if  with  a  small  epistle 
from  your  own  hand,  of  course,  doubly  so. 

Milnes  acted  upon  the  suggestion  thrown  out  by 
Carlyle,  and  in  due  time  he  received  from  Emerson  the 
following  acknowledgment : — 


FIRST    YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  241 

R.   W.  Emerson  to  R.  M.  M. 

Concord,  Mass.,  30<7i  May,  1840. 

My  DEAR  SIR, — I  have  received  by  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Sumner  your  friendly  note,  and  the  letter  from  the  Westminster 
Review.  I  am  very  well  pleased  that  my  little  tracts,  now  of 
such  old  date,  should  have  been  esteemed  by  you  worthy  of 
public  criticism ;  and  I  accept  it  as  the  hint  of  a  good  genius  that 
I  fell  into  the  hands  of  friends  in  the  old  Fatherland,  where 
every  American  has  a  sort  of  pre-existent  citizenship  and  a 
corresponding  value  of  a  good  name.  These  essays  never  looked 
for  any  notice  beyond  the  narrow  precincts  of  the  community  for 
which  they  were  written,  and  I  hoped  before  this  time  to  have 
set  them  aside  by  some  more  adequate  statements  on  the  great 
questions  which  engage  at  present  all  thinking  men.  I  know  they 
stand  in  need  of  great  correction,  and  yet  will  you  forgive  me  if 
I  say  that  I  hope  to  win  your  assent  to  bolder  and  broader 
generalisations  than  these  which  have  struck  you  as  viciously 
partial?  I  have  never  been  able  to  announce  my  faith  with 
fulness,  and  perhaps  never  shall  be ;  but  are  we  not  continually, 
as  our  eyes  open,  shamed  out  of  the  limitations  we  have  con- 
ceded ?  It  is  of  no  importance  to  me,  even  though  I  have  not 
(if  I  have  not)  a  glimpse  of  the  means  by  which  better  relations 
are  to  be  established  in  society  and  a  higher  education  attained, 
if  I  can  see  that  all  means  lie  in  the  power  of  that  which  affirms 
the  need  of  reform.  Of  course  I  have  no  expectation  of  any 
good  to  result  from  social  arguments,  which  are  only  mirrors  and 
reverberations  of  a  few  individuals.  The  hope  of  man  resides  in 
the  private  heart,  and  what  it  can  achieve  by  translating  that 
into  sense.  And  this  hope,  in  our  reasonable  moments,  is  always 
immense,  and  refuses  to  be  diminished  by  any  deduction  of 
experience ;  inasmuch  as  our  experience  is  always  dishonest, 
unequal,  whilst  the  idea  is  always  total,  accusing  and  inexorable 
to  our  excuses. 

I  am  trespassing  on  the  privileges  of  a  letter  by  such  grave 
allusions,  but  I  please  myself  with  conversing  with  a  poet  to 
whose  verses  I  have  owed  some  happy  moments.  Poetry  seems 


242  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

to  me  to  conceive  a  vaster  aim  than  it  lias  yet  attempted ;  the 
aim  of  each  artist  takes  hold  on  a  remoter  success,  and  something- 
nearer  to  Nature,  and  which  more  commands  Nature,  than  the 
Greek  beauty,  we  may  yet  realise.  I  derive  my  hope,  as  far  as  it 
grows,  out  of  facts,  of  course  only  from  the  observation  of  select 
persons.  For  although  the  whole  society  is  vulgar,  yet  one 
person  seems  to  abolish  all  other  lives  ;  at  least,  makes  it  super- 
fluous to  take  account  of  them. 

I  shall  hear,  my  dear  Sir,  with  joy  of  every  accession  of  love 
and  honour  to  your  name,  and  am  your  obliged  friend  and  servant, 

E.  W.  EMERSON. 

In  the  autumn  of  1839  Milnes  revisited  Scotland, 
one  of  his  objects  in  doing  so  being  to  take  part,  as  a 
spectator,  in  the  great  social  event  of  the  year,  the 
famous  Eglinton  tournament,  the  memory  of  which 
has  not  yet  faded  away ;  though  pouring  rain  made 
the  spectacle  so  eagerly  anticipated  slightly  ridiculous. 
He  returned  south  by  way  of  the  lakes,  and  paid  a 
visit  en  route  to  Wordsworth. 

E.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Edinburgh,  Oct.  2Uh,  1839. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — There  is  little  likelihood  of  a  letter  reaching 
you  at  Paris  now,  and  yours  to  Fryston  has  been  only  just  for- 
warded to  me.  It  was  exactly  what  I  expected  and  wanted  from 
you.  I  have  been  touring  about  Scotland  the  last  two  months, 
so  missed  answering  yours  from  Munich.  1  shall  be  in  York- 
shire in  about  a  fortnight,  but  do  not  press  you  to  come  down. 
My  present  intention  is  to  be  at  Paris  by  the  end  of  December, 
to  remain  till  the  meeting  of  Parliament. 

Amongst  Milnes's  constant  correspondents  was  Eliot 
Warburton. 


FIRST    TEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  243 

Eliot  Warburton  to  R.  M.  M. 

Dec.,  1839. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — You  have  got  into  a  habit  of  writing-  to 
me  the  most  inconsiderable  little  letters,  so  carelessly  writ  that 
"  from,"  "  for/'  "  and/'  and  "  to/'  are  ever  exchanging  their 
conventional  meaning,  and  so  unf ull  of  anything,  and  so  mention- 
less  of  yourself,  that  next  to  not  hearing  from  you  at  all  they 
are  of  the  saddest.  Now  tell  me  this  thing,  were  you  of  a  truth 
of  a  profane  party  who  crowned  old  Wordsworth  in  a  pageant  at 
Lowther?  Are  you  going  to  do  that  impossible  thing,  to  spend 
Christmas  in  Paris  ?  Wot  you  not  that  the  day  will  be  there  only 
the  25th  of  December?  Why  do  not  you  make  Lady  Galway 
exchange  this  cruel,  dark,  damp  climate  for  Italy?  Did  not 
your  malignant  English  fogs  still  her  rich  voice,  so  that  she 
was  long  silent  in  song  until  that  one  mild  evening  when  the 
spell  broke  and  the  music  was  again  free  ?  Do  you  remember  on 
returning  from  the  Adelphi,  it  is  now  years  ago  ?  The  days  we 
fling  behind  us,  how  rapidly  they  change  into  solemn,  weighty, 
and  responsible  years  like  the  stones  of  Deucalion  an.d  Pyrrha. 
Why  are  you  only  thinking  of  another  volume?  Is 
it  not  true  that  once  entered  on  a  higher  career  there  is  no  step 
but  the  grave  ?  ...  Do  you  ever  mean  to  come  to  Ireland 
again?  You  treat  my  proposition  with  as  much  scorn  as  if 
steam  had  not  shrivelled  up  England  nor  shrunken  up  the 
Channel. 

I  insert  this  letter  chiefly  because  it  throws  light 
upon  one  of  the  difficulties  of  Milnes's  biographer,  at 
this  period.  The  social  engagements  in  which  he  was 
now  absorbed  seem  to  have  left  him  hardly  any  time 
for  correspondence  with  his  old  friends,  and  there  is 
scarcely  one  of  them  who  about  this  period  does  not 
indulge  in  grievous  lamentations  over  his  failure  to  keep 
up  communication  with  them.  Warburton  mentions 


244  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

the  rumour  he  had  heard  of  Milnes's  intention  to  go  to 
Paris  for  the  Christmas.  It  was  something  more  than 
a  rumour.  He  had  resolved  to  make  a  somewhat  length- 
ened sojourn  in  the  French  capital  for  the  special 
purpose  of  studying  society  and  politics  there.  And 
here  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  in  the  autumn 
his  father  and  mother  had  made  a  tour  in  France,  in  the 
course  of  which  they  had  encountered  the  father's  old 
friend,  Beau  Brummel.  Mrs.  Milnes  in  her  journal 
gives  us  a  pathetic  glimpse  of  the  once  famous  dandy  in 
his  days  of  sorest  misfortune. 

We  went  to  Caen,  and  who  should  place  himself  just  opposite 
to  us  but  Beau  Brummel,  the  miserable  wreck  of  fallen  fortunes 
and  devotion  to  the  world.  The  people  told  us  he  was  quite 
imbecile,  and  that  whatever  p la t  they  put  before  him,  he  ate. 
He  looked  well,  and  though  his  coat  was  threadbare,  there  was 
still  a  pretension  about  his  dress,  and  his  wig  was  curled  and 
arranged  most  tastefully.  He  walked  feebly,  and  had  a  look  of 
vacancy.  He  gave  us  a  smile  of  recognition,  and  said  he 
remembered  our  giving  him  and  his  little  dog  a  dinner  every 
day  while  we  were  there  before.  At  that  time,  I  remember,  he 
showed  us  the  gold  plate  given  him  by  George  IV.,  whose 
intimacy  and  friendship  for  him  were  once  notorious. 

Milnes  thoroughly  enjoyed  himself  in  Paris,  and 
according  to  his  wont  went  everywhere  and  saw  every- 
body in  whom  he  felt  any  interest ;  but,  alas  !  no  letters 
of  his  remain  to  record  his  impressions.  Instead  we 
have  invitations  from  the  King  and  the  various  Ministers, 
of  whom  the  most  important  was  M.  Gruizot,  to  dinners 
and  receptions,  tickets  of  admission  to  the  Law  Courts 
where  sensational  trials  were  in  progress,  and  to  Les 


FIBST    YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  245 

Invalides  on  the  occasion  of  the  second  funeral  of 
Napoleon ;  and  other  indications  that  he  turned  his  time, 
according  to  his  wont,  to  the  best  possible  advantage 
from  his  own  point  of  view.  The  visit  was  of  import- 
ance because  it  made  him  the  friend  of  Gruizot  and  other 
distinguished  Frenchmen  of  the  Parliamentary  regime, 
among  whom  the  names  of  Thiers  and  Lamartine  must 
not  pass  unnoticed.  Happily,  too,  in  his  commonplace 
books  Milnes  jotted  down  sundry  sayings  of  the  distin- 
guished men  whom  he  met  on  this  occasion,  from  which 
a  few  quotations  may  be  made. 

Among  the  other  eminent  men  whose  acquaintance 
Milnes  made  during  this  visit  was  M.  de  Tocqueville. 
The  friendship  thus  begun  was  never  broken.  De 
Tocqueville  made  it  his  business  to  assist  Milnes  in  his 
desire  to  meet  the  leading  political  celebrities  of  the 
hour,  and  it  was  by  his  good  offices  that  he  became 
acquainted  with  Barrot,  Berryer,  Comte  de  Tracy,  Leon 
Eaucher,  and  others.  De  Tocqueville,  in  the  first 
instance,  clearly  regarded  Milnes  as  a  politician  of 
importance.  "  I  desire  to  make  your  stay  in  Paris,"  he 
wrote,  "  both  agreeable  and  useful.  I  desire  this — 
firstly,  for  your  own  sake,  but  also  for  the  public  cause ; 
for  the  only  chance  of  peace  in  our  respective  countries 
depends  on  our  knowing  each  other  thoroughly."  As 
the  years  passed,  De  Tocqueville  ceased  to  regard  Milnes 
as  an  English  envoy,  and  came  to  love  him  for  his  own 
sake  alone.  More  than  twenty  years  after  their  first 
meeting  in  Paris,  in  1861,  Milnes,  in  an  article  in  the 
Quarterly  Review,  written  after  De  Tocqueville's  death, 


246  TEE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

gave  the  world  an  account  of  the  character  of  this 
eminent  and  most  estimable  Frenchman.  . 

With  the  King  and  his  family  Milnes  formed  a 
friendship  which  was  destined  to  endure.  He  was,  at 
the  same  time,  however,  keenly  alive  to  the  anomalous 
political  situation  of  the  France  of  that  period,  and  he 
noted  in  his  commonplace  book  not  a  few  expressions 
used  by  men  of  influence  which  were  distinctly  deroga- 
tory to  the  dignity,  if  not  to  the  character,  of  Louis 
Philippe.  Montalembert,  for  example,  is  recorded  as 
saying,  "  The  cruel  part  of  Louis  Philippe's  situation  is 
that  he  has  nothing  chivalrous  to  support  him ;  it  is 
putting  up  a  grocer  and  his  family  to  be  shot  at." 
"  I  came  from  the  East,"  says  Montalembert,  in 
another  place,  "  all  anxiety  to  calm  the  King's  en- 
thusiasm about  Egypt,  and  the  first  thing  he  said  to 
me  was,  '  Whether  Syria  belongs  to  the  Sultan  or  the 
Pasha,  it  doesn't  matter  a  button  to  me.  " 

It  is  only  fair  to  append  to  these  cynical  utterances 
of  Montalembert  regarding' his  constitutional  sovereign, 
a  criticism  upon  the  cynic  himself  by  Gustave  de 
Beaumont :  "  Montalembert  is  an  English  aristocrat 
foisted  into  the  middle  of  French  democracy." 

Paris  was  at  the  time  of  Milnes's  visit  undergoing 
the  process  of  fortification,  and  in  the  light  of  sub- 
sequent events  it  is  curious  to  read  the  recorded  sayings 
of  French  statesmen  on  the  subject  of  the  forts  and  the 
work  they  were  meant  to  do.  Gruizot,  for  example,  told 
Milnes  that  the  "  great  use  of  the  fortifications  of  Paris 
was  that  the  Parisians  might  never  need  to  make  use  of 


FIRST    TEARS   IN   PARLIAMENT.  247 

them ; "  whilst  a  cabman  who  drove  him  to  the  scene 
of  the  work,  remarked  pathetically,  "  They  are  going  to 
destroy  the  Bois  de  Boulogne — to  destroy,  you  know, 
is  always  jolly." 

Montalembert's  view  was  expressed  as  follows : 
— "  The  fortifications  are  already  begun  in  a  most 
characteristically  democratic  manner,  by  cutting  down 
the  trees  of  the  Bois  de  Boulogne.  Whatever  takes 
place,  the  Liberals  will  at  least  have  had  the  pleasure 
of  destroying  something." 

The  King's  opinion  on  the  subject  was  different  to 
any  other.  "  There  has  always  been,"  he  said  to  Milnes, 
"  and  always  will  be  in  Paris,  a  party  strong  enough  to 
overthrow  any  established  Government,  when  seconded 
by  a  foreign  army.  This  the  fortifications  of  Paris  will 
prevent,"  Again,  in  talking  to  Montalembert,  Louis 
Philippe  remarked,  "  The  fortifications  of  Paris  will  pre- 
vent M.  Nicolas  from  coming  to  say  a  Greek  mass  there." 

M.  Carne  feared  "that  when  Paris  had  got  its 
fortifications,  like  a  woman  with  a  new  ornament,  she 
would  never  rest  till  she  had  tried  the  effect  of  them." 

Of  the  King  and  M.  Guizot,  Milnes  saw  a  great  deal. 
He  was  entrusted  by  both  with  messages  to  Sir  Robert 
Peel ;  and  it  was  on  his  return  from  Paris  in  January, 
that  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to  Sir  Robert : — 

JR.  M.  M.  to  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

Boulogne-sur-Mer,  Jan.  24^,  1841. 

DEAR  Sm  ROBERT, — I  had  hoped  to  be  sure  of  seeing  you 
on  Monday  evening  or  Tuesday  morning,  but  the  wind  to-day 
is  so  high  and  so  adverse  that  no  boat  can  start ;  the  same  may 


248  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

be  the  case  to-morrow.  I  think  it  better  therefore  to  write  to 
you,  as  both  the  King-  and  M.  Guizot  wish  that  you  should 
receive  some  communication  from  them  before  the  meeting  of 
Parliament.  They  both  most  strongly  urge  the  necessity  of 
great  moderation  in  the  expression  of  opinion  on  our  side  of  the 
House. 

The  King  said,  "Tell  Sir  Robert  Peel  that  I  place  all 
confidence  in  his  declaration  of  the  importance  of  the  French 
alliance  in  February  last,  and  that  I  trust  he  can  prevent  any  of 
his  friends  from  injuring  my  position  and  that  of  my  Ministry." 

M.  Guizot  went  the  length  of  saying,  "My  Ministry  depends 
for  its  existence  on  the  conduct  of  England/'  A  letter  from  the 
Duke  was  shown  in  Paris,  in  which  he  expressed  his  feeling  of 
the  necessity  of  England's  keeping  up  with  France  an  increase  of 
armaments,  and  he  added,  "  When  both  are  armed,  then,  vogue  la 
galere."  This  looks  rather  energetic  from  so  peaceful  an 
authority ;  and  though  the  French  Government  have  no  wish 
that  we  should  encourage  the  French  war  spirit  by  any  show  of 
weakness  (and  indeed  this  very  necessity  of  outlay  seems 
to  me  the  best  card  we  have  to  play  off  against  Lord 
Palmerston),  yet  they  are  anxious  to  escape  from  phrases, 
such  as  Lord  M/s*  "  Sweep  the  seas/'  which  become  forts 
detaches,  from  which  the  enemy  can  attack  them  with  at  least 
momentary  success. 

Berryer  was  putting  about  Paris  a  report  that  "  Lord 
Aberdeen  intended  to  speak  strongly  in  favour  of  the  violent 
policy  of  Lord  Palmerston,  and  to  urge  the  decheance  of  the 
Pasha/'  This  would  be  a  hard  shock  for  Guizot's  Government, 
which  in  fact  rests  upon  the  notion  that  the  mauvais  precede  was 
Lord  Palmerston's  own  doing,  and  not  the  enunciation  of  the 
general  opinion  of  English  statesmen. 

From  the  little  you  said  to  me  at  Drayton  I  am  so  convinced 
of  the  correctness  of  your  views  with  regard  to  France,  and  so 
sure  by  my  own  experience  of  the  impolicy  of  Lord  Palmerston's 
real  or  pretended  confidence  in  the  tranquillity  and  submission  of 

*  Lord  Minto. 


FIRST    TEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  249 

that  country,  that  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  a  continua- 
tion of  his  policy,  or  more  correctly  of  the  conduct  of  his  policy, 
must  end  in  an  European  war.  The  King-  and  Guizot  both  told 
me  to  tell  you  they  dare  take  no  steps  towards  disarmament,  and 
Thiers  publicly  says  he  will  make  Lord  Palmerston  cost  more  to 
England  than  did  ever  before  the  support  of  a  Minister  to  a  nation. 
Peace  rests  in  France  upon  Guizot  and  the  King :  without  them 
the  more  material  interests  could  not  keep  the  people  quiet,  and 
although  Guizot  is  unpopular  to  an  incredible  degree,  even 
among  his  own  supporters,  and  the  poor  King  distracted  between 
his  love  of  peace  and  England,  and  his  conviction  that  his  throne 
depends  upon  the  belief  in  his  national  feelings  (he  said,  "  If  my 
nationality  is  suspected,  I  am  lost ")  can  hardly  be  depended 
upon  in  any  imminent  crisis ;  although  he  asserts,  and  I  doubt 
not  with  sincerity,  that  if  a  Ministry  urges  him  to  war  with 
England,  he  will  break  them  or  be  broken  by  them. 

Excuse,  my  dear  Sir,  this  hurried  scribble,  but  the  discomfort 
and  distraction  of  travelling,  or,  rather,  resting  when  you  want 
to  get  on,  are  very  great. 

Believe  me, 

Your  obedient  and  obliged, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

Will  you  tell  Freemantle  I  am  travelling  with  a  good  pair, 
Hobhouse,  Sir  John's  brother. 

Those  who  up  to  this  point  have  only  seen  Milries 
as  the  poet  and  the  social  favourite  may  be  surprised 
to  find  him  thus  conveying  the  sentiments  of  the 
Monarch  and  the  leading  Ministers  of  one  nation  to  the 
foremost  statesman  of  another.  He  had,  however,  the 
art  of  inviting  confidence  on  the  part  of  others  besides 
the  men  of  letters  and  of  fashion  with  whom  he  chiefly 
lived.  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  serious  light  in 
which  he  viewed  political  life  and  public  work,  It  was 


250  TIIE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

not  as  the  mere  lounger  that  he  went  to  Paris  at  this 
period,  but  as  the  student  of  affairs,  anxious  to  arrive 
by  personal  observation  and  communication  at  a  true 
understanding  of  the  state  of  things  in  France  at  a 
critical  moment  in  the  relations  of  that  country  with 
England.  How  well  he  succeeded  was  shown  not 
merely  by  the  faci  that  he  was  entrusted  with  con- 
fidential communications  from  the  King  and  M.  Guizot 
to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  but  by  the  warmth  of  the  friend- 
ships which  he  formed  with  the  most  distinguished 
Frenchmen  of  the  day. 

The  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  given  above  was  crossed 
by  one  from  Peel  himself,  replying  to  a  previous  com- 
munication so  far  "  as  it  was  possible  to  do  through  the 
post-office."  In  this  letter  Peel  expressed  his  hope  that 
on  their  side  of  the  House,  at  least,  "  every  speaker 
would  be  fully  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  difficulties 
with  which  M.  Guizot  had  to  deal,  and  would  do  nothing 
to  add  to  them." 

It  was  not  only  with  statesmen  and  royalties  that 
Milnes  became  familiar  during  this  memorable  visit  to 
Paris.  It  was  then  that  he  first  formed  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  poet  Heine,  for  whose  genius  he 
had  so  warm  an  admiration,  and  who,  on  his  side,  re- 
garded the  young  Englishman  with  true  affection. 

It  was  to  Lady  Duff  Gordon  that  Milnes  was  in- 
debted for  his  introduction  to  Heine.  In  what  light 
Heine  himself  regarded  the  young  Englishman  was 
shown  by  a  letter  of  his,  written  not  long  before  his 
death,  to  Lady  Duff  Gordon : — 


FIRST    YEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  251 

Yes  [he  said] ,  I  do  not  know  what  possessed  me  to  dislike 
the  English,  and  to  be  so  spiteful  towards  them,  but  it  really  was 
only  petulance.  I  never  hated  them ;  indeed,  I  never  knew 
them.  I  was  only  once  in  England,  but  knew  no  one,  and  found 
London  very  dreary,  and  the  people  in  the  streets  odious.  But 
England  has  revenged  herself  well;  she  has  sent  me  most 
excellent  friends — thyself  and  Milnes — that  good  Milnes — and 
others. 

Years  afterwards,  in  July,  1856,  there  appeared  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review  a  notice  of  Heine's  poems  and 
life,  which  attracted  not  a  little  attention,  not  only  from 
the  sympathetic  character  of  the  criticism  of  his  poems, 
but  from  the  special  knowledge  it  displayed  of  the 
poet's  life  and  character.  It  was  from  the  pen  of  the 
"  good  Milnes." 

Yet  another  writer  helped  Milnes  to  pass  his  time 
pleasantly  in  the  French  capital.  This  was  Thackeray, 
who  was  already  his  friend,  their  friendship  dating 
from  their  college  days,  and  who  accompanied  him  to 
that  second  funeral  of  Napoleon  of  which  the  novelist 
has  left  so  vivid  an  account. 

During  the  spring  of  1841  he  was  able  to  carry  out 
a  long- cherished  intention  by  securing  Carlyle  as  his 
guest  in  bis  father's  bouse  at  Eryston.  His  objec£  was 
not  merely,  or  ratber  not  entirely,  hospitality,  tbougb 
he  was  deligbted  at  being  able  to  bring  tbe  great  genius, 
whose  knowledge  of  English  country  life  was  as  yet  chiefly 
from  tbe  outside,  into  the  midst  of  the  pleasant  atmo- 
sphere of  sucb  a  borne  as  Fryston.  He  wished  to  bring  the 
writer  and  philosopher  into  contact  witb  bis  fatber,  and 
to  see  tbe  effect  wbich  one  original  mind  bad  on  another. 


252  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  Friday  (March,  1841). 

DEAR  MILNES, — If  you  really  do  want  me  to  go  with  you, 
come  down  hither  and  tell  me  practically  in  reasonable  words 
what  the  possibilities,  limitations,  difficulties,  laws  and  conditions 
of  the  enterprise  are.  I  will  then  answer  you  yes  or  no;  most 
probably  yes.  I  am  at  home  to-night ;  I  will  wait  for  you  to- 
morrow till  half-past  one.  If  you  like  neither  of  these  dates 
name  another.  Or  perhaps,  incurable  Hoaxer,  you  do  not  mean 
to  go  at  all,  even  yourself. 

Yours,  with  more  regard  than  you  deserve, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

But  Milnes  was  in  earnest,  and  on  April  5th  he  had 
the  privilege  of  finding  himself  the  companion  o£ 
Carlyle  in  a  railway  carriage  bound  for  the  North.  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  as  it  happened,  was  also  travelling  to  his 
home  by  the  same  train,  and  accompanied  them  as  far 
as  Tamworth. 

Milnes  and  I  got  on  beautifully  [writes  Carlyle,  describing 
the  journey  to  his  wife] .  He  read  "  Oxford  tracts,"  &c.,  all  the 
way,  argued  and  talked  in  the  smartest  manner.  ...  I 
managed  to  smoke  three  cigars,  two  of  them  in  the  railway,  in 
spite  of  regulations. 

This  was  penned  from  Derby,  where  the  travellers 
— railway  communications  in  those  days  not  being  so 
simple  and  easy  as  they  now  are — rested  for  the  night. 
Next  morning  they  continued  their  journey,  and  in  due 
course  arrived  at  Fryston. 

Richard  [again  writes  Carlyle  to  his  wife]  made  me  descend 
some  two  miles  off  our  appointed  goal  and  walk  homewards 
by  a  shorter  way  through  woods,  over  knolls,  &c.  Walking 


FIRST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  253 

was  not  my  forte.  However,  I  persevered,  and  did  well 
enough,  over  rough-looking  places  some  of  them.  We  got 
at  last  to  the  Fryston  mansion — a  large  irregular  pile  of  various 
ages,  rising  up  among  ragged  old  woods  in  the  rough,  large 
park,  also  all  sprinkled  with  trees,  grazed  by  sheep  and  horses ; 
a  park  chiefly  beautiful  because  it  did  not  set  up  for  beauty. 
Ancient-looking  female  figures  were  visible  through  the  windows 
as  we  drew  nigh.  Mrs.  Milnes,  a  tall,  ancient  woman,  apparently 
of  weak  health,  of  motherly  kind  heart,  of  old-fashioned  stately 
politeness,  a  prepossessing  woman,  welcomed  us  at  the  door  of 
the  drawing-room,  "  in  the  silence  of  the  stately  hall." 

I  am  lodged  in  a  bedroom  with  four  enormous  windows, 
which  look  out  over  woody  garden  spaces  and  other  silent 
ruralities,  the  apartment  furnished  as  for  Prince  Albert  and 
Queen  Victory.  The  most  absurd  place  I  ever  lived  in  (when  I 
look  at  myself  and  my  equipment)  in  this  world.  I  am  charged 
to  smoke  in  it,  too. 

I  have  a  fire  in  it  all  day.  The  bed  seems  to  be  about  eight  feet 
wide ;  a  ladder  conducts  you  to  it  if  you  like.  Of  my  paces  the 
room  measures  fifteen  from  end  to  end,  forty- five  feet  long,  height 
and  width  proportionate,  with  ancient  dead-looking  portraits  of 
queens,  kings,  Straffords  and  principalities,  &c.,  really  the  un- 
comfortablest  acme  of  luxurious  comfort  that  any  Diogenes 
was  set  into  in  these  late  years.* 

No  such  apartment  as  that  which  he  describes  in  the 
above  epistle  is  to  be  found  at  Fryston,  unless  it  be 
the  dining-room,  where  it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that 
the  author  of  "  Sartor  Besartus  "  was  lodged  on  this 
occasion,  when  other  guests  besides  himself  shared  the 
hospitality  of  the  Milnes's. 

But  at  the  time  of  Carlyle's  visit  there  was  a  large 
bedroom  on  the  first  floor,  afterwards  divided  into  bed- 

*  From  "Thomas  Carlyle,  History  of  his  Life  in  London."    By 
James  Anthony  Froude.    London  :  Longmans  and  Co.     1884. 


254  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

room  and  sitting-room  for  Lord  Houghton  himself, 
where  it  seems  probable  that  the  visitor  was  lodged.  It 
was  not,  perhaps,  quite  so  magnificent  as  the  description 
given  above  would  lead  the  reader  to  suppose ;  it  is 
probable,  however,  that  this  was  the  first  occasion  on 
which  Carlyle  had  ever  been  a  guest  in  a  large  house, 
and  his  imagination  may  have  been  affected  by  his 
novel  surroundings.  Stories  still  linger  about  Fryston 
regarding  the  great  author's  first  visit  to  the  place. 
Lord  Houghton  himself  used  to  tell  how  when  Carlyle, 
having  been  greeted  by  his  mother,  was  ushered  into  the 
morning  room,  now  the  beautiful  drawing-room  of  the 
house,  Mr.  Milnes,  who  was  sitting  there  smoking,  rose, 
and  in  his  courtliest  and  kindliest  manner  welcomed  his 
son's  distinguished  guest,  apologising  at  the  same  time  for 
his  own  occupation,  as  he  indicated  the  cigar  which  he 
held  in  his  hand.  "  Indeed,  sir,"  said  Carlyle,  "  I  think 
that  this  is  about  the  most  sensible  occupation  which 
any  man  could  have,  and  if  you  don't  object,  I  will  just 
join  you  in  it  at  once,"  which  he  accordingly  did.  In 
the  conversation  the  two  men,  each  in  his  way  distin- 
guished, had  over  this  first  cigar,  Mr.  Milnes,  on  hearing 
Carlyle  express  his  admiration  of  the  prospect  from  the 
windows  of  the  room,  pointed  out  the  single  tall 
chimney  of  some  manufactory  on  the  far  horizon,  and 
expressed  his  regret  that  it  should  recently  have  been 
erected,  and  thus  spoiled  the  rustic  character  of  the 
view.  "  Spoiled  the  view  !  "  said  Carlyle ;  "  why,  sir, 
I  think  that  is  just  the  pleasantest  feature  in  the 
whole  bit  of  scenery.  It  shows  us  that  somebody 


FIRST    YEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  255 

is   doing  something  in  this  part  of  the  world,  at  any 
rate." 

But  perhaps  the  best  account  of  Carlyle's  doings  and 
feelings  during  this  visit  to  Fryston  is  to  be  found  in 
the  following  letter  to  his  wife,  hitherto  unpublished, 
which  by  a  curious  chance  fell  into  the  hands  of  Lord 
Houghton  himself  after  the  death  of  the  writer : — 

T.  Carlyle  to  Mrs.  Carlyle. 

Fryston,  10^  April,  1841. 

Many  thanks,  dear  bairn,  for  your  brisk,  kind  little  letter, 
which  was  handed  in  to  me  yesterday  morning.  The  flunkey  in 
red-quilted  coat  walked  solemnly  round  the  breakfast  table  with 
his  silver  salver,  laying  letter  after  letter  on  it  for  this  and  the 
other,  and  behold,  at  last,  there  was  one  for  me  too.  I  escaped 
with  it  into  the  air  to  read  it  there  at  leisure.  Happily  nothing 
is  wrong,  nothing  is  worse  than  I  expected,  all  is  rather  better. 

I  have  no  time  or  means  to-day  to  send  you  right  news  of 
what  is  going  on  here,  it  would  take  such  a  length  of  time  to 
make  any  clear  description  of  it.  I  merely  write  to  signify  that 
I  am  still  swimming  along  in  this  wondrous  element,  and  that 
nothing  goes  amiss  with  me  as  yet.  That  will  season  your  slice 
of  bread  for  you  on  Saturday  sufficiently.  Pour  a  glass  of 
sherry  for  yourself,  and  read  such  news  thankfully  to  the  relish 
of  that. 

All  would  be  well,  and  supremely  well,  with  me  here,  if  I 
could  but  sleep.  A  small  faculty  but  an  important  one  !  You 
know  my  talent  that  way,  especially  on  such  lionising  occasions. 
Ah,  me !  Nevertheless,  after  the  most  tumultuous  watchings, 
shruggings,  and  tumblings  through  the  night  watches,  I  get  up 
wonderfully  cheery.  A  cigar  smoked  in  the  open  sunshine  amid 
the  sound  of  trees,  with  one's  foot  on  the  soft  grass,  sets  me  quite 
up  again ;  and  I  meet  the  household  at  their  "  half-past  ten  " 
breakfast  with  a  cheerful  heart.  We  dine  about  eight,  and 
I  am  here  acting  as  a  lion — can't  get  out  of  it — tout  est  dit ! 


256  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

But  I  have  had  one  long-  ride,  and  mean  to  get  another  this  day 
(unless  the  rain  return) .  It  is  above  all  a  new  kind  of  shatter- 
ment  that  I  suffer,  and  therefore  a  relief  from  the  old.  I  believe 
I  am  getting  quieter  and  better  in  spite  of  the  very  devil. 
Enough  of  that  for  one  time. 

"  Richard/'  I  find,  lays  himself  out  while  in  this  quarter  to 
do  hospitalities,  and  of  course  to  collect  notabilities  about  him 
and  play  them  off  one  against  the  other.  I  am  his  trump  card 
at  present.  The  Sessions  are  at  Pontef ract  even  now,  and  many 
lawyers  there.  These  last  two  nights  he  has  brought  a  trio  of 
barristers  to  dine — producing  champagne,  &c.  Plate  of  Marry 
silver,  four  or  five  embroidered  lackeys,  and  the  rest  of  it,  are 
the  order  of  all  days.  Our  first  trio  consisted  of  Sir  Francis 
Doyle  (a  good  young  man  whom  I  liked),  another  elderly 
wigsman  (name  forgotten),  and — little  Roebuck  !  He  is  practis- 
ing as  advocate  now,  that  little  Roebuck,  as  lean,  acrid,  conten- 
tious, and  loquacious  as  ever.  He  flew  at  me,  do  what  I  would, 
some  three  or  four  times  like  a  kind  of  cockatrice — had  to  be 
swept  back  again;  far  more  to  the  general  entertainment  than 
to  mine.  He  does  not  fly  into  a  shriek  like  Maurice,  that  is  his 
quality;  but  he  is  a  very  impertinent  little  unproductive  gentle- 
man, and  I  suppose  has  made  many  a  man  inclined  to  shriek. 
We  parted  good  friends — with  small  wish  on  my  part  or  his  to 
meet  again.  Last  night  our  three  was  admitted  to  be  a  kind  of 
failure,  three  greater  blockheads  the  lie  lang  nicht  ye  wadna  find 
in  Christendee.  Richard  had  to  exert  himself ;  but  he  is  really 
dexterous,  the  villain.  He  pricks  into  you  with  questions,  with 
remarks,  with  all  kinds  of  fly  tackle  to  make  you  bite — does 
generally  contrive  to  get  you  into  some  sort  of  speech.  And 
then  his  good  humour  is  extreme ;  you  look  in  his  face  and  forgive 
him  all  his  tricks.  The  three  blockheads  at  length  made  a 
stiff  rectangular  bow  (protruding  the  hydrastisy  in  a  very  curious 
way)  and  took  themselves  off. 

To-night  we  are  to  have  Lord  Wharncliffe,  called  hereabouts 
the  dragon  of  Wantley,*  a  clever-looking  man  as  I  judged  him 

•  Properly  "  Wortley." 


FIRST    TEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  257 

yesterday  by  face  to  be.  My  private  wish  were  that  /  lay  some 
leagues  off  his  orbit ;  but  on  the  whole  what  ill  will  he  do  me  ? 
I  have  to  dine  at  any  rate. 

Besides  these  strays  and  waifs,  we  have  had,  and  are  likely 
to  have,  certain  Yorkshire  cousins,  male  and  female,  from  the 
northern  dales — rosy-faced  persons  who  "do  thee  neither  ill 
nor  good."  Richard's  sister  (see  "  Poetic  Memorials  ")  is  also 
here  these  two  days  until  to-morrow.  They  call  her  Harriette 
and  Ladyship — "  Will  Ladyship  have  fowl  ?  " — and  seem  to  have 
made  a  pet  of  her  from  the  beginning.  Even  this  has  not  en- 
tirely spoiled  her.  I  think  she  is  decidedly  worth  something. 
About  the  height  of  Richard,  which  makes  a  respectable 
stature  for  a  gown  (nay,  I  think  she  must  be  some  inches 
taller),  the  same  face  as  he,  but  translated  into  the  female  cut, 
and  surmounted  with  lace  and  braided  hair  ;  of  a  satirical,  witty 
turn,  not  wanting  affability,  but  rather  wanting  art  of  speech ; 
above  all  rather  afraid  of  me :  she  sings,  plays,  reads  German, 
Italian,  &c.,  to  great  lengths,  looks  really  beautiful,  but  some- 
what mooney,  with  her  large  blue  eyes,  and  indeed  I  do  believe 
has  more  in  her  than  we  yet  see.  Her  husband,  the  Viscount 
Galway,  is  a  furious,  everlasting  hunter  of  foxes — I  mean  furious 
on  the  foxes,  good  to  all  other  things  and  men  ;  a  cousin  of  her 
own,  Monckton  by  surname.  They  live  in  Nottinghamshire, 
some  thirty  miles  off,  and  "  Richard  will  take  me  down  thither." 
We  shall  see  as  to  that. 

With  the  rest  of  the  household,  dear  Donaldson  aunts  in- 
cluded, I  get  on  as  well  as  need  be.  The  mother  is  a  very  good 
woman,  with  a  mild,  high-sailing  way,  to  which  in  old  times 
her  figure  and  beauty  must  have  corresponded  well.  The  old 
gentleman  likes  me  better  daily,  since  he  finds  /  won't  bite.  He 
is  said  to  be  greatly  altered  since  his  accident  (of  breaking  a 
limb  last  year),  as  indeed  he  may  well  be,  having  been  a  great 
rider,  and  suddenly  shut  out  from  all  exercise  this  many  months. 
A  man's  faculties  would  get  terribly  rusted  in  that  case.  He  has 
flashes  of  wit,  of  intelligence,  and  almost  originality.  At  all 
events,  he  wants  not  "flashes  of  silence."  Most  part  of  his 


258  TEE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

time  he  sits  in  his  library  smoking  and  ruminating,  shrunken 
up,  I  daresay,  in  innumerable  whims  and  half-diseased  thoughts, 
though  full  of  good  nature.  I  like  him  very  much.  These  are 
our  dramatis  persona.  They  are  all  off  on  Good  Friday  to 
church  ;  I  alone  left  here,  scribbling  to  Goody — better  than 
Good  Friday  to  me  ?  I  believe  I  shall  have  to  go  on  Sunday. 
I  will  not  if  I  can  possibly  escape :  I  have  even  religious 
scruples  about  it — I  really  begin  to  have. 

What  course  awaits  me  after  a  day  or  two  I  do  not  at  all 
know.  The  Spring  Rice  Marshalls  (from  Leeds)  are  invited  for 
Monday,  and  the  Corn  Law  Rhymer,  none  of  whom  I  hope  will 
come.  Consider  it !  Of  course  I  must  stay  till  after  Monday, 
but,  certainly,  if  I  do  not  get  into  the  way  of  sleeping  better  I 
ought  to  be  gone  somewhither  as  soon  as  possible;  which 
"  whither  "  it  shall  be  will  gradually  grow  clearer.  I  think  of 
the  sea  and  Hull :  it  is  far  cheaper,  and  not  more,  but  less 
uncomfortable  for  me.  .  .  .  Does  Jeffrey  come  back  to 
Chelsea  ?  Tell  him  I  am  still  alive.  Never  mind  those 
beggarly  newspaper  reviews,  laudatory,  condemnatory,  or 
whatever  they  be.  What  is  a  whole  "potato  basket "  of  them 
worth  ?  Zero,  or  a  minus  quantity. 

Shame  !  There  is  the  clock  striking  one.  A  full  hour  and 
more  since  I  began.  Not  another  word.  .  .  . 

Enough,  enough  ;  adieu,  dear  good  bairn.  God  send  us  both 
better,  my  lassie.  It  is  a  pity  we  were  not. 

Yours  ever, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

Interesting  as  this  picture  of  the  Fryston  household, 
drawn  by  so  masterly  a  pen,  would  be  in  any  case,  it  is 
even  more  interesting  because  of  the  certainty  that  it 
expresses  the  true  sentiments  of  the  writer,  put  into 
words  the  revelation  of  which  to  any  other  than  his 
wife  he  never  contemplated.  From  Fryston  Carlyle 


FIRST    YEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  259 

went  to  Serlby  to  visit  Lady  Gralway,  and  then  resumed 
his  journey  to  Scotland. 

To  Milnes  himself,  after  the  conclusion  of  his  visit, 
Carlyle  writes  in  a  strain  of  simple  friendliness. 

Thomas  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Scotsbrig,  Ecclefechan,  25  April,  1841. 

DEAR  MILNES, — Accept  my  salutations  out  of  my  mother's 
cottage  in  poor  old  native  Annandale  !  They  will  reach  you  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Cumberland  mountains  in  a  scene  differing 

o 

from  this  as  green  Earth  differs  from  Hades — though  this  too 
is  earth,  were  I  not  too  spectrish  at  present !  I  found  my 
mother  taken  suddenly  unwell  at  a  daughter's  house  some  twenty 
miles  off  this,  and  had  to  hasten  thitherward  without  halt.  That 
is  the  reason  of  my  delay  in  writing  to  you.  Happily  all  is  now 
right  again,  and  we  are  here  in  safety,  met  one  other  time  under 
this  sun. 

The  moors  are  silent  as  death — a  strange  unwonted  blessing 
to  me.  The  sun  shines  with  a  kind  of  metallic  brightness, 
beautifying  even  moors  and  simple  furrow  fields.  Specks  of 
snow  still  checker  the  blue  of  Skiddaw  and  Helvellyn — my  noble 
friends. 

Ah  me  !  These  brooks  still  gush  along  as  they  did  thirty  years 
ago,  as  they  did  three  thousand  years  ago ;  and  with  me  in  that 
period,  in  that  latter  period  especially,  so  much  has  altered.  I 
study  to  live  silent  as  the  moors  themselves,  and  feel,  as  I  always 
do  here,  extremely  like  a  ghost — which  indeed  I  am  and  you  are. 
Yet  outside  these  windows  larks  are  singing  far  up  over  their 
earth  nests :  we  are  alive  withal,  as  I  understand  it.  Oh,  Pusey- 
isms,  Shovel-hatisms,  and  all  Isms  that  are  or  were,  hold  your 
foolish  scraggy  jaw;  all  the  jargon  you  can  utter,  is  it  not  a  kind  of 
personal  insult  in  the  presence  of  that  entirely  unutterable  Fact  ? 

Dear  Milnes,  I  beg  you  to  continue  to  have  some  regard 
for  me.  Enclosed  is  a  small  money  debt  converted  into 
gold ;  the  debt  of  thankfulness  I  owe  will  not  be  soon 


260  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

paid.      You   are  upon    the  whole    a   good    man — though    with 
terrible  perversities. 

I  shall  be  proud  if  Lady  Galway  and  her  husband  will  re- 
member me  at  all.  I  desire  you  to  offer  my  best  regards  to  your 
good  mother,  to  your  aunts,  and  your  father.  Fryston  shall 
be  memorable  to  me  ;  Fryston  and  the  inhabitants  thereof. 
You  too,  you  rogue,  in  spite  of  all  you  pretend,  have  you 
not  a  faintly  perceptible,  but  undeniable  degree  of  kindness 
for  me  ?  In  not  many  days  I  hope  to  see  you  again  in  Pall 
Mall. 

Yours  affectionately, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

They  did  not  meet  quite  so  soon  as  Carlyle 
anticipated.  Milnes  was  at  this  period  busily  engaged 
in  writing  his  "  One  Tract  More,"  *  that  eloquent  and 
earnest  plea  for  toleration  for  the  Anglo-Catholic  en- 
thusiasm, which  was  not  without  its  effect  upon  the 
minds  of  his  fellow-countrymen  at  a  critical  moment, 
and  which  at  all  events  proved  that  a  man  did  not 
require  to  be  a  Puseyite  in  order  to  understand  and  to 
sympathise  with  the  aspirations  of  those  who  were 
seeking  to  bring  about  a  great  spiritual  revolution 
within  the  Church  of  England.  The  pamphlet  excited 
wide-spread  interest,  and  among  the  many  letters 
addressed  to  its  author  after  its  appearance  there  are  one 
or  two  which  are  still  worthy  of  being  quoted. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  in  replying,  said,  "  I  read  your  little 
book  after  my  wife's  party  last  night  with  great  delight 
and  warm  admiration ;  so  much  so  that  I  would  not 
write  to  thank  you  for  it  until  I  had  this  afternoon 

*  Cardinal  Newman  favourably  alludes  to  it  in  a  note  in  his  "Apologia." 


FIRST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  261 

enjoyed  an  opportunity  of  looking  over  it  again  in  cool 
blood,  to  see  that  I  might  speak  plain  truth  to  you." 
He  went  on  to  discuss  three  special  parts  of  the  tract 
as  worthy  of  praise,  showing  Milnes  to  have  "  handled 
the  most  delicate  subjects  with  the  greatest  felicity,  the 
most  profound  appreciation,  and  the  strictest  adherence 
to  truth."  These  special  points  were  the  sketch  of  the 
English  Eeformation  ;  the  statement  of  the  true  idea  of 
toleration  ;  and  the  discussion  of  the  charge  of  Romanis- 
ing. After  touching  upon  one  or  two  points,  in  which 
he  was  not  in  entire  agreement  with  Milnes,  he  closed 
by  expressing  the  pleasure  with  which  he  had  read  the 
tract,  and  his  regret  that  it  was  not  the  alpha  instead 
of  the  omega  of  a  series. 


R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy.      . 

London,  Monday  (?  June,  1841). 

I  am  still  here  waiting  for  my  father,  who  has  not  been  at 
all  well ;  the  warm  weather  which  has  been  a  comfort  to  every- 
body else  has  made  him  ill.  When  I  have  seen  him  I  shall  know 
whether  I  can  go  to  Brussels  on  Wednesday  or  not,  as  I  wish  to 
do.  My  little  "  One  Tract  More  "  has  a  regular  and  quiet  sale, 
which  shows,  I  hope,  that  it  is  doing  good.  I  intend  to  enlarge 
the  second  edition.  I  would  advise  you  to  go  on  as  well  as  you 
can  with  your  German  letters,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  I  can 
get  them  profitably  published  for  you  in  a  collected  form  or  in 
Fraser's  Magazine.  Do  you  think  you  could  write  a  good  review 
of  Schlosser's  History,  with  extracts  of  some  of  the  most 
amusing  passages  ?  If  you  could  do  this  and  give  it  a  Conserva- 
tive sense,  I  have  hopes  I  could  get  it  into  the  Quarterly. 
Lockhart  frequently  asks  me  to  write  him  something,  and  would 
like,  I  think,  to  show  me  a  civility.  There  is  a  stupid  article  on 


262  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    IIOUGHTON. 

my  poems  in  the  Dublin  Review,  without  any  allusion  to  the 
religious  peculiarities  and  tendencies  of  them,  which  is  the  only 
thing  the  reviewer  had  business  with.  Farewell;  I  will  write 
again,  and  my  address  is  always  Pall  Mall. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

The  year  was  an  agitated  one,  so  far  as  English 
politics  were  concerned.  It  witnessed  the  dissolution  of 
Parliament,  and  the  defeat  of  the  Liberal  ministry  in 
the  country,  with  the  consequent  formation  of  the 
administration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  Milnes  issued  his 
address  to  the  electors  of  Pontefract  on  the  14th  of 
June,  1841,  claiming  that  he  had  given  his  "  strenuous 
opposition  to  Her  Majesty's  present  Administration,  not 
so  much  for  any  particular  bad  principles  they  held,  as 
because  they  have  no  principles  whatever."  At  the 
same  time  he  claimed  that  in  following  the  Tory  party 
he  had  never  surrendered  the  exercise  of  his  private 
judgment,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  voted  against  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  favour  of  a  large  remission  of  capital 
punishments. 

As  yet,  you  will  be  glad  to  know  [he  writes  to  MacCarthy], 
I  have  no  .opposition  at  Pomfret;  my  opponent  Gully,  the 
athlete,  has  retired  after  having  examined  the  matter,  and  I 
hardly  anticipate  any  serious  contest.  My  virtuous  constituents 
will,  however,  hardly  allow  me  and  Lord  Pollington  to  walk  over 
the  course.  They  told  my  father  they  must  have  a  third  man 
from  somewhere  or  other,  whom  they  would  draw  into  the  town  in 
triumph  and  then  vote  against.  This  will  probably  be  the  issue. 
I  am  much  more  afraid  of  an  Election  Committee.  Lord  John 
has  been  trying  to  get  enacted  a  clause  in  his  Bribery  Bill  by 


FIRST    TEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  263 

which  a  matt  found  guilty  of  giving  a  sandwich  to  a  voter,  is  to 
be  disqualified  from  serving  in  Parliament  for  the  rest  of  his 
natural  life ;  he  was,  however,  obliged  to  withdraw  it. 
My  friend  Bishop  Thirlwall  has  made  a  capital  debut  in  favour 
of  the  Jews.  The  whole  Bench  wept  over  him  as  a  renegade 
brother,  but  he  took  it  very  easy. 

Whilst  the  election  was  in  full  progress,  Milnes  was 
called  away  to  serve  on  the  Grand  Jury  at  York.  He 
had  expected  to  receive  a  visit  from  Thackeray,  who 
happened  to  be  in  the  North  of  England,  and  his 
engagement  at  York  threatened  to  interfere  with  his 
reception  of  his  friend. 

W.  M.  Thackeray  to  R.  M.  M. 

Saturday,  10^  July,  1841. 

Stockton-on-Tees. 

MY  DEAR  R.  M.  M., — You  have  inflicted  upon  me  the  most 
cruel  blow  possible ;  for  I  had  hoped  to  come  to  you  on  Monday, 
staying  Tuesday,  and  be-offing  Wednesday ;  for  I  must  have 
two  days  in  London,  and  be  back  in  Paris  on  Sunday.  1  shall 
look  out  for  you  Monday  at  the  Grand  Jury  room  at  York,  and 
regret  heartily  that  I  am  not  allowed  to  have  a  couple  of  days' 
quiet  talk  with  you  in  your  paternal  groves,  after  the  cursed 
racket  of  this  infernal  election.  I  shall  not  of  course  conceal 
from  you  that  the  Tories  in  this  Division  have  met  with  a  heavy 
blow  and  great  discouragement.  .  .  .  If  I  do  not  call  you 
by  your  right  address  on  the  cover,  it  is  because  you  persist  in 
addressing  me  as  John,  whereas  my  name  is 

WILLIAM  THACKERAY. 

On  second  thoughts  I  won't  call  you  Thomas  Milnes,  Esq., 
as  I  intended,  lest  mistakes  should  arise,  and  you  should  be 
deprived  of  this  letter. 


264  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

Fortunately  Thackeray  was  able  to  extend  his  stay 
in  England,  with  the  result  that  after  all  he  did  visit 
Fryston,  the  first  of  many  occasions  on  which  he  was  a 
guest  under  the  roof,  the  chimney-pots  of  which  had 
been  described  by  Carlyle  as  "  the  very  windpipes  of 
hospitality."  Thackeray  spent  nearly  a  week  with  his 
friend.  This  was  the  occasion  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  when  Mr.  Milnes  told  his  son's 
guest  that  he  could  smoke  anywhere  except  in  Richard's 
room.  Thackeray  enjoyed  the  life  of  the  place,  at  once 
refined,  intellectual,  and  free  from  conventional  restraints. 
"  Fryston,"  he  remarked  to  a  friend  afterwards,  "  com- 
bines all  the  graces  of  the  chateau  and  the  tavern." 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Fryston,  July  6th,  1841. 

DEAK  MACCARTHY, — I  have  been  just  as  busy  about  my 
election  as  if  it  had  been  most  hardly  contested.  My  opponent 
came  and  went  away,  and  came  again  in  a  very  worrying  way, 
and  you  know  that  I  always  look  to  the  worst  of  things.  I  am 
now  as  much  or  more  anxious  about  the  County  Election,  which 
will  be  a  neck-to-neck  race.  We  have  already  a  sufficient 
majority  to  make  Sir  Robert  Peel  Minister,  and  I  trust  to  his 
wisdom  and  moderation  to  get  any  majority  he  wants  afterwards ; 
if  the  ultra  Tories  choose  to  throw  him  over,  he  cannot  help  that, 
and  in  that  case  would  probably  give  up  public  life  altogether. 
I  look  forward  with  little  pleasure  to  the  next  Parliament,  which 
will  be  full  of  stupid  violence  and  blind  party  spirit,  at  best,  at 
first.  I  intend  staying  in  Yorkshire  for  the  present. 

R.  M.  M. 

Milnes  was  duly  returned  once  more  as  member  for 
Pontefract,  but  as  the  foregoing  note  indicates,  it  was 


FIRST    YEARS   IN  PARLIAMENT.  265 

with  somewhat  depressed  feelings  that  he  regarded  the 
political  future.  He  believed,  and  certainly  not  without 
reason,  that  he  had  established  a  claim  to  office,  but  the 
real  diffidence  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  a  character 
that  on  the  surface  was  somewhat  aggressive  in  manner, 
and  that  depression  of  spirits  which  was  natural  to  him 
when  he  was  thinking  of  himself  and  his  own  prospects, 
made  him  despair  of  receiving  the  recognition  to  which 
he  believed  himself  to  be  entitled.  It  was  amid  the 
anxieties  and  perturbations  of  the  hour  that  he  again 
asked  Carlyle  to  be  his  guest  at  Fryston. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Scotsbrig,  Ecclefechan,  19  July,  1841. 

DEAR  MILNES, — Many  thanks  for  your  letter,  and  for  your 
kind  remembrance  of  me  in  the  Courthouse  of  York.  Ponte- 
fract,  too,  has  a  Courthouse,  as  you  say ;  an  ancient,  solid- 
minded,  wry-necked  dragon,  imperturbable  amid  cockatrice  Roe- 
bucks and  the  sinners  of  the  Riding.  On  leather  seats  sits 
many  a  cnstos  rotulorum — sits  a  bright  bevy  of  Fryston  friends ; 
ushers  distributed  letters  on  long  poles ;  poor  old  Barney,  with 
eyes  wide  staring  in  terror,  "  sowld  him  a  bit  of  hay/'  but  will 
not  perjure  himself :  all  this,  and  what  surrounds  it,  stand  in 
very  lively  memory  with  me,  too. 

For  a  fortnight  and  a  day  I  have  been  here  in  the  utmost 
extreme  of  seclusion  ;  sunk  in  Naturunschauung  deep  as  a  Druid; 
sunk  in  reflections  that  cannot  be  spoken,  in  indolence  that  need 
not  be  spoken  !  It  is  very  wholesome  for  me.  Like  a  "  chapped 
flute "  (or  scrannel  pipe)  which  you  steep  in  the  ditch  until  it  close 
again  and  become  a  whole  flute  or  scrannel.  I  spent  about  a 
week  in  coming  hither  by  Newcastle,  &c.  At  Tynemouth  I  had 
a  swim  in  the  beautiful  blue  sea ;  saw  Harriet  Martineau ;  saw 
the  North  Shields  election ;  admired  the  rugged  energy  of  that 


266  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

population  and  how  completely  Annandale  Scotch  they  are. 
From  the  Humber  to  the  Forth,  still  more  from  the  Tyne  to  the 
Forth,  I  find  no  real  distinction  at  all,  except  what  John  Knox 
introduced :  it  is  all  Scotch — Scotch  in  features  and  face,  in 
character,  in  dialect  and  speech.  You,  too,  if  you  behave  your- 
self, shall  be  accounted  Scotch  !  They  are  all  Danes,  these 
people,  stalwart  Normans;  terrible  sea-kings;  are  now  terrible 
drainers  of  morasses,  terrible  spinners  of  yarn,  coal-borers, 
removers  of  mountains  ;  "  a  people  terrible  from  the  beginning." 
The  windy  Celts  of  Galloway  you  see  not  many  miles  from  this, 
on  the  edge  of  Nithsdale.  Is  it  not  a  considerable  blessing  to 
have  escaped  being  born  a  Celt  ? 

As  for  poor  Harriet  (who  asked  for  you  among  other  things), 
I  found  her  confined  to  a  sofa,  dangerously  ill,  I  believe,  though 
not  in  immediate  danger ;  for  the  rest,  brisk,  alert,  invincible 
as  ever.  There  is  a  kind  of  prepared  completeness  in  Harriet, 
which  does  honour  to  nature  and  the  Socinian  formulae.  In  my 
travels  I  have  met  with  few  more  valiant  women.  Poor  Harriet! 
She  was  absolutely  affected,  amiable,  almost  sublime  to  me 
there.  Sunt  lachryma  rerum.  How  are  all  human  souls 
crushed  in  by  this  formula  or  that,  by  this  good  fortune  or 
that ;  and  hardly  any  formula  supportably  fits  a  man,  and  the 
most  are  not  coats,  but  strait-waistcoats ;  very  lamentable ! 
Shall  we  not  in  these  circumstances  say,  "  One  Tract  More/'  oh, 
Richard  Milnes  ? 

How  can  you  ask  me  back  to  Fryston  when  the  smoke  of  my 
tobacco  is  hardly  yet  cleared  from  that  sublime  bedroom  ?  I 
must  not  think  of  it  again  yet  for  indefinite  periods  of  time. 
Meanwhile,  surely  I  hold  all  things  there  in  the  liveliest  remem- 
brance. Whoever  is  interested  in  that  most  important  fact 
ought  to  be  apprised  of  it  on  occasion.  From  valet  Frederick 
up  to  the  lord  of  the  manor  and  lady  of  the  manor  I  can  make 
an  embossed  image  of  it  all  at  any  time,  and  be  very  glad  to 
contemplate  it  all.  Good  be  at  Fryston  always  ! 

To-morrow  I  go  to  catch  my  wife  from  the  steamer  at  Annan, 
carry  her  up  to  Nithsdale — her  mother's  country — for  a  few 


FIRST    TEARS    IN  PARLIAMENT.  267 

days.  After  that  we  proceed  to  take  possession  of  a  certain 
small  furnished  cottage  situated  apart  in  solitude  and  sea  gravel 
on  the  north  beach  of  the  Solway.  .  .  .  If  at  the  end  of 
August  any  trace  of  a  decided  wish  to  see  London  again  dis- 
closes itself,  I  will  return  then.  ...  I  believe  on  the 
whole  I  must  by-and-by  endeavour  to  provide  myself  some  kind 
of  permanent  hut  or  inverted  tub  somewhere  or  other  under  the 
free  canopy  in  this  soil  of  Britain,  that  I  may  fly  thither  at  any 
time  out  of  Babylon  when  it  is  like  to  kill  me.  I  grudge  to 
leave  London  altogether,  yet  cannot  afford  to  be  killed  by  it  just 
yet.  Why  does  not  a  pious  man  like  you  think  of  founding 
some  kind  of  modern  priest's  cell  amid  the  rocks  of  Wantley, 
for  example,  but  safe  from  the  dragon ;  a  low,  sheltered 
tugurium,  with  two  apartments  12  feet  by  16,  and  an  aged 
woman,  dumb  and  not  entirely  deaf,  to  look  after  it  and  boil  a 
kettle  when  required;  whither  many  a  half -distracted  poet 
(modern  priest  if  we  are  ever  again  to  have  priests)  might  run 
and  hide  himself  from  all  living,  and  so  save  himself  sane,  and 
write,  perhaps,  things  epical  instead  of  things  Bulwerical  and 
Cecilical  ?  Positively  it  should  be  thought  of.  It  would  suit 
you  better  than  passing  suicidal  Corn  Laws,  you  misguided  man ! 
A  real  Squire's  bane  I  define  these  laws  to  be ;  sweet  to  the  tooth 
of  Squire,  but  rapidly  accelerating  all  squires,  as  if  they  needed 
acceleration  in  their  course  downward.  Really  that  is  my  cool 
judgment  of  it.  Sir  Peel  is  a  great  man;  can  bribe,  coerce, 
palaver,  gain  a  majority  of  seventy ;  but  Sir  Peel  cannot  make 
water  run  permanently  upwards,  or  an  English  nation  walk  on  the 
crown  of  their  heads.  I  will  leave  him  to  try  his  hand  at  that ! 
Ah  me  !  To-day  my  reading  is  one  Herr  Mone  on  the  heathen- 
dom of  the  old  North,  a  sublime  thing  according  to  Herr  Mone, 
that  old  heathendom,  deeper,  or  as  deep,  and  rather  truer  than 
any  Christendom  we  have  now.  Did  I  ever  tell  you  how  near  I 
was  bursting  into  absolute  tears  over  your  old  fat-sided  parson 
at  Fryston  that  day  ?  It  is  literally  a  kind  of  fact.  The  droning 
hollowness  of  the  poor  old  man,  droning  as  out  of  old  ages  of 
old  eternities  things  unspeakable  into  things  unbearable,  empty 


268  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

as  the  braying  of  an  ass,  was  infinitely  pathetic  in  that  inood  of 
mine.     Adieu,  dear  Milnes ;  God  be  merciful  to  us  all. 

Yours  ever, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

From  the  closing  passage  in  the  above  letter  it  will 
be  seen  that  Carlyle  did  go  to  church  after  all  during 
his  first  visit  to  Fryston. 

Peel  formed  his  Administration,  and  Milnes's  fore- 
bodings regarding  his  own  fate  were  confirmed.  No 
office  was  offered  to  him,  though  men  unquestionably 
his  inferiors  in  talent  and  knowledge  were  admitted 
into  the  Government.  He  was  destined  thus  early  in 
his  political  career  to  learn  the  price,  as  he  had  already 
experienced  the  advantages,  of  that  political  indepen- 
dence of  which  he  was  proud.  Still,  the  mortification 
to  himself  was  severe,  and  in  writing  to  his  friend 
MacCarthy  he  did  not  conceal  it.  The  latter  sought  to 
console  him. 

C.  J.  MacCarthy  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chejostow,  Sunday  (?  Aug.,  1841). 

DEAR  FRIEND, — Your  short  letter  gave  me  pain,  because  I 
thought  it  revealed  pain  in  you.  I  was  not  much  disappointed, 
though  I  was  grieved  for  you.  I  agree  with  yon  that  you  will 
not  be  the  worse  for  biding  your  time,  though  I  wish  it  had 
come  now.  Lord  Bacon  says  that  hope  is  a  very  good  breakfast 
but  a  very  bad  supper.  You  and  I  may  console  ourselves  that 
we  are  at  most  making  of  it  an  early  lunch,  and  may  yet  expect 
to  dine  on  more  substantial  fare.  How  far  are  you  going,  and 
how  long  ?  I  hope  the  lightness  of  travel  will  restore  to  you 
something  of  the  chit-chat  of  old  times,  and  that  in  the  quiet 
of  reprieved  ambition  you  will  become  again  what  you  were  ten 


FIRST   YEARS  IN  PARLIAMENT.  269 

years  ago,  and  write  me  long  letters,  and  think  about  art  and 
literature  and  sunshine,  and  bask  and  loiter  in  pleasant  fancies. 
.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  to  my  credit  or  to  yours, 
or  to  both  our  credits,  that  I  do  not  find  my  love  for  you  the 
least  changed  in  kind  or  degree  by  all  I  have  gone  through  and 
all  you  have  done  for  me,  but  can  chat  with  you  as  well  as  ever, 
and  think  of  you  as  fondly.  A  common  man  would  laugh  at 
my  wonder  at  not  finding  my  friendship  diminished  or  changed 
by  the  benefits  received  from  my  friend,  or  the  sufferings  he  has 
alleviated ;  but  you  are  not  one  of  these,  and  will  know  what  I 
mean.  Ever  since  I  knew  you,  you  have  been  the  chief  person 
in  my  life  ;  a  friend  and  brother  and  confessor,  the  end  and  aim 
now  of  all  my  thoughts  and  actions  and  hopes.  .  .  .  The 
present  form  of  public  affairs  cannot,  I  should  think,  last  much 
longer ;  Peel  must  surely  in  time  slough  away  the  Knatchbulls 
and  Gladstones  and  such-like,  and  then  your  time  will  be  come. 
You  will,  of  course,  cultivate  as  much  as  possible  your  political 
connections  in  France,  and  accustom  yourself  while  you  have  the 
opportunity  to  talk  and  read  the  language  assiduously.  Pray  do 
not  neglect  this  last  piece  of  advice.  .  .  .  You  are  too  wise, 
I  am  sure,  to  let  this  disappointment  alter  your  political  creeds 
or  shake  your  adherence  to  your  party.  I  much  approve  of 
your  late  plan  of  conduct  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  see  it. 
Your  short  practical  speeches  and  working  beneath  the  sur- 
face .  .  . 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

C.  J.  MACCARTHY. 

Milnes  did  not  need  the  advice  of  his  friend  as  to  the 
desirableness  of  his  cultivating  his  political  connections 
in  France.  At  the  direct  request  both  of  the  King 
and  of  M.  Guizot,  he  had  kept  them  informed  of 
the  state  of  political  feeling  in  England,  and  as  the 
reader  has  already  seen,  he  had  also  been  the  medium 
through  whom  these  high  personages  had  communicated 


270  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

their  views  to  the  leader  of  the  Tory  party  in  England. 
He  now  wrote  to  M.  Gruizot  to  inform  him  of  the  result 
of  the  election. 

R.  M.  M.  to  M.  Guizot,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Paris. 

•26,  Pall  Mall,  Sept.  1th,  1841. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  have  always  intended  to  give  you  such 
information  as  lay  in  my  way  as  to  the  constitution  and  personnel 
of  the  new  Conservative  Ministry,  and  now  that  the  appoint- 
ments are  concluded  I  will  not  delay  doing  so.  The  two  most 
striking  characteristics  of  the  Government  are  no  doubt  its 
regard  for  former  official  service  and  its  observance  of  aristocratic 
connection.  All  the  men  who  took  the  risks  of  office  with  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  1835  are  amply  rewarded.  Lord  Haddington, 
then  Lord- Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  is  now  at  the  head  of  the 
Admiralty,  not  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  who  remember 
that  Canning,  his  great  friend  and  patron,  never  saw  anything 
in  him  worthy  of  official  distinction,  and  gave  him  a  peerage 
without  a  place.  His  being  a  Scotchman  is  also  against  his 
popularity ;  the  patronage  of  the  Admiralty  having  taken  so 
very  palpably  a  northern  direction  in  the  long  Administration  of 
Lord  Melville  and  the  late  one  of  Lord  Minto.  Goulburn,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  is  an  alter  ego  of  Peel,  and  perhaps 
his  most  intimate  friend.  Lord  Canterbury,  not  being  able  to 
take  anything  better  than  his  pension,  has  got  for  his  son,  an 
untried  and  very  young  man,  the  important  office  of  Under- 
secretary of  the  Home  Department.  The  son  and  nephew  of 
Lord  Ashburton,  who  was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  apostate  from 
the  Whigs  to  Peel,  have  both  got  places.  Lord  Fitzgerald 
refused  to  take  office,  but  is  not  unlikely  to  accept  some  high 
diplomatic  appointment,  and  I  should  be  very  glad  if  he  went  to 
Paris.  I  regard  him  as  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  agree- 
able men  of  the  party  (perhaps  the  most  so  among  the  Lords), 
and  I  am  sure  he  would  be  very  popular  with  all  of  you.  Glad- 
stone's appointment  to  the  Board  of  Trade  is  not  very  distinguished 
in  itself,  but  at  the  present  moment  when  the  Corn  Law  fills  up 


FIRST   YEARS    IN   PARLIAMENT.  271 

so  large  a  place  in  public  and  party  interests,  it  has  acquired  a 
great  importance,  and  will  give  him  great  and  frequent  means 
of  displaying  his  fine  abilities.  My  two  friends,  Sidney  Herbert 
(Lord  Pembroke's  brother)  and  Lord  Eliot,  are  the  Secretaries 
for  the  Admiralty  and  Ireland.  This  last  is  perhaps  the  best 
that  Peel  has  made.  I  do  not  know  a  man  of  more  noble  and 
moderate  spirit,  more  fully  conscious  of  every  responsibility  he 
undertakes,  more  free  from  selfishness  and  almost  from  party 
ambition;  he  will  stand  nobly  between  the  two  fires  of  that 
unhappy  country,  and  if  his  moral  courage  is  equal  to  his  good 
intention,  he  will  do  better  than  Lord  Morpeth,  and  that  is  say- 
ing a  good  deal.  His  chief,  Lord  de  Grey,  is  a  nobleman  of 
great  wealth  and  fine  temper,  with  some  perceptions  of  heart, 
but  perhaps  a  little  too  much  of  the  beau  Sabreur  to  keep  all 
about  him  as  quiet  as  he  ought  to  do.  These  appointments  are, 
however,  at  once  seen  to  be  good,  for  they  are  unpopular  with 
the  Orangemen.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  and  Sir  Edward 
Knatchbull  do  not  do  the  harm  by  being  in  the  Cabinet  that 
might  be  supposed;  they  represent  the  landed  nobility  and 
gentry  of  England,  and  thus  whatever  modification  of  the  Corn 
Law  takes  place,  as  long  as  they  remain  there,  can  meet  with  no 
opposition  from  those  two  great  interests.  As  independent  men 
they  might  have  given  a  great  deal  more  trouble  than  they  now 
vail  do,  and  I  myself  have  always  applauded  the  prudence  which 
places  a  concealed  enemy  as  much  as  possible  within  your  grasp. 
Peel  has  now  got  so  strong  a  grip  of  the  aristocracy  that  he 
must  either  drag  them  along  with  him  in  his  advance  or  perish 
in  the  attempt.  I  will  not  admit  the  supposition  that  they  can 
master  him.  Neither  the  high  Tories,  nor  Stanley,  nor  Graham 
have  had  much  to  do  with  the  distribution  of  offices.  This  Peel 
has  kept  much  to  himself,  and  you  may  thus  be  surprised  that  I 
occupy  no  place.  But  I  have  no  right  to  complain,  when  Peel 
has,  in  fact,  taken  upon  himself  the  only  post  I  had  the  least 
desire  to  fill — that  of  Under- Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs. 
There  is  no  Under- Secretary  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
he  will  therefore  have  to  meet  Palmerston  himself,  which  is,  I 


272  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

suppose,  his  real  desire.  For  my  own  part  I  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  he  might  have  trusted  to  my  discretion ;  but  it  is 
possible  that  Lord  Aberdeen  may  have  made  some  decisive 
objection,  owing  both  to  my  known  Liberal  inclinations  in 
foreign  matters  and  to  the  circumstance  that  a  nephew  of  his 
Lordship's  was  very  anxious  to  get  the  appointment.  Sir  Robert 
Peel  will  not  lose  any  support  I  have  in  my  power  to  give  him, 
as  I  fully  appreciate  the  difficulties  of  his  position,  and  yet  can- 
not help  wishing  that  he  had  been  able  to  give  his  Administration 
a  more  popular  character.  Sir  Stratford  Canning  has  refused 
Canada  (to  which  Sir  Charles  Bagot  is  appointed),  and  has 
taken  a  place  about  Court,  to  the  surprise  of  the  diplomatic 
world.  I  hope  this  is  not  a  scheme  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  to  get 
rid  of  the  services  of  such  a  conscientious  diplomatic  servant. 
The  Court  is  more  moral  and  still  more  stupid  than  before, 
and  I  cannot  help  fearing  that  the  Queen,  who  has  hitherto 
behaved  with  great  courage  and  self-possession,  will  find  the 
change  very  disagreeable.  My  cousin,  Mr.  Gaskell,  has  got  a 
seat  at  the  Treasury  Board,  which  will  do  very  well  for  him. 
If  it  were  not  for  my  father's  uncertain  health  I  should  rejoice 
that  my  independence  of  office  gave  me  the  opportunity  of  being 
a  good  deal  abroad,  and  you  would  not  be  long  without  a  visit 
from  me.  Charles  Buller,  who  is  sitting  by  me,  begs  me  to 
return  you  his  grateful  thanks  for  your  kind  remembrance  of 
him,  and  Gladstone  would  do  the  same  if  he  were  not  a  hundred 
miles  off,  managing  his  election. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Sir, 

Your  grateful  and  obliged  friend, 

R.  M.  MILNES. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  urged  Peel  to  give  places  to  as 
many  as  possible  of  the  young  nobility,  that  there  might  be 
some  of  them  trained  in  habits  of  public  life. 


CHAPTEE   VII. 

JOURNEY   TO    THE    EAST. 

The  Copyright  Question — The  Corn  Laws — The  Queen's  Ball — Journey  to  the 
East — Correspondence  with  Peel — His  Friendship  with  MacCarthy — Tenny- 
son's Pension — Carlyle  and  Milnes — Southey's  Widow — Charles  Buller — 
Milnes's  Position  in  Parliament — Correspondence  with  "W.  E.  Gladstone, 

DURING  the  winter  of  1841  Milnes  did  not,  according  to 
his  wont,  go  abroad.  He  spent  it  in  the  quiet  of  his 
home  at  Fryston. 

As  I  am  no  sportsman  [he  writes,  Jan.  23rd,  1842,  to  M. 
Guizot] ,  I  have  only  my  books  and  an  intelligent  friend  or  two. 
This  is  a  great  contrast  to  the  interest  of  your  magnificent 
hospitality  to  me  last  winter,  but  I  trust  not  the  less  useful 
to  myself. 

More  than  ever  at  this  point  in  his  career  he  seems 
to  have  been  determined  to  make  a  serious  effort  to  gain 
a  place  of  his  own  in  the  political  world.  The  social 
fame  of  which  he  already  enjoyed  so  large  a  share,  and 
the  literary  reputation  which  had  come  to  him  in 
abundance,  altogether  failed  to  satisfy  his  ambition. 
He  wished  to  serve  his  country  as  a  public  man,  and 
above  all  to  give  proof  of  the  fact  that  he  was  something 
more  than  a  mere  litterateur  or  the  brilliant  talker  and 
host.  The  reader  has  already  seen  something  of  the 
care  with  which  he  studied  foreign  politics,  and  un- 
questionably if  there  was  one  object  in  life  dearer  to  him 


274  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

than  another,  it  was  the  attainment  of  a  position  in 
which  he  might  have  had  a  leading  share  in  controlling 
the  Foreign  Policy  of  the  United  Kingdom.  To  this 
position  Milnes  was  never  destined  to  rise  ;  yet  those 
who  knew  him  best  will  bear  me  out  when  I  say  that 
he  was  far  more  completely  equipped  for  the  post  of 
Foreign  Secretary  than  the  majority  of  politicians, 
and  that  so  far  as  knowledge  of  Continental  countries, 
of  their  leading  men,  of  their  schools  of  thought, 
and  of  their  lines  of  policy  was  concerned,  there  was 
hardly  one  of  his  contemporaries  who  could  have 
claimed  to  be  his  superior.  It  was  his  misfortune 
that  London  society,  which  had  taken  to  him  from  his 
first  entrance  into  it,  was  not  disposed  to  regard  him 
in  his  own  light  as  a  serious  man  of  affairs.  His  bril- 
liant social  success,  and  the  constant  though  ephemeral 
triumphs  which  he  gained  in  connection  with  his  con- 
tributions to  periodical  literature,  added  to  the  more 
solid  reputation  which  he  enjoyed  as  a  poet,  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  political  advancement  to  which  he  aspired. 
Again  and  again  in  later  life,  in  discussing  his  own 
career  or  the  career  of  other  men,  with  those  who  under- 
stood him  best,  he  deplored  the  fact  that  in  England 
popular  opinion  always  insists  upon  drawing  a  broad 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  man  of  letters  and  the 
man  of  affairs.  He  himself  was  one  of  many  who  had 
suffered  from  this  national  prejudice — men  whose  success 
in  one  field  of  labour  has  been  fatal  to  any  attempts  to 
win  laurels  in  another.  But  the  reader  who  wishes  to 
know  something  of  the  real  life  of  Milnes  himself,  must 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  275 

at  least  take  passing  note  of  the  serious  efforts  which  he 
made  to  serve  his  country  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  who  was  so  fond  of  the  brighter  and  lighter  side  of 
social  life,  and  whose  time  was  so  easily  dissipated 
in  happy  conversation  with  his  chosen  friends,  spared  no 
pains,  shrank  from  no  sacrifices,  in  order  to  fit  himself 
for  a  post  of  usefulness  in  the  service  of  the  public. 

Among  the  questions  which  in  the  early  part  of  1842 
specially  engaged  his  attention  was  that  of  a  Copyright 
Bill.  He  had  laboured  in  the  cause  before,  but  the 
cause  itself  had  not  been  successful;  and  he  now 
proposed  to  make  a  fresh  attempt  to  carry  a  measure 
through  Parliament. 

R.  M.  M.  to  W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Fryston,  Jan.  Ylth,  1842. 

MY  DEAE  GLADSTONE, — If  the  matter  does  not  fall  into  better 
hands,  I  intend  to  try  and  get  the  modified  Copyright  Bill  through 
Parliament  early  in  the  session.  As  Lord  Monteagle's  Chancellor- 
ship did  not  prevent  him  from  taking  an  active  part  in  Talf ourd's, 
I  trust  your  official  position  will  not  prevent  you  from  helping 
me.  ... 

Believe  me, 

Yours  always, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

W.  E.  Gladstone  to  R.  M.  M. 

London,  Jan.  19M,  1842. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Lord  Monteagle  has  been  interesting 
himself  about  a  Copyright  Bill,  and  communicated  with  some 
parties  upon  it.  I  would  recommend  you  to  write  to  him.  Some 
time  back  I  saw  a  statement,  I  know  not  whether  well  founded 
or  not,  that  Thesiger  had  taken  up  the  question.  This  is  not 
meant  to  divert  or  discourage  you,  as  I  need  hardly  specify,  but 


276  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

to  prevent  any  cross  purposes.  I  begged  Lord  Monteagle  to 
propitiate  Macaulay.  I  trust  that  a  moderate  term  dating  from 
death  might  be  had  without  violent  opposition,  or  the  "confused 
splutter  "  of  the  former  proceedings.  .  .  .  I  do  not  appi-ehend 
there  will  be  any  difficulty  in  my  exercising  a  private  judgment 
in  favour  of  your  Copyright  Bill. 

Your  most  sincere, 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 

It  was  Lord  Mahon  and  not  Milnes  who  actually 
brought  in  the  Copyright  Bill,  that  which  is  still  in 
force,  and  which  gives  to  the  English  author  and  his 
representatives  the  possession  of  his  own  works  for 
a  term  of  forty-two  years  as  a  minimum.  But  if  the 
Bill  was  Lord  Mabon's,  no  one  supported  it  more 
strenuously  than  Milnes,  and  in  the  principal  debate  on 
the  measure  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  April  6th,  he 
replied  to  its  chief  assailant,  Dr.  Wakley,  who,  in 
decrying  the  rights  of  authors  as  opposed  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  public,  had  so  far  forgotten  himself  as  to 
read  in  a  mocking  manner  some  of  Wordsworth's  verses. 
Milnes  was  not  the  man  to  allow  the  idol  of  his  College 
days  to  be  turned  into  ridicule  in  this  fashion  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  he  retorted  in  a  speech  which 
at  the  time  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  public,  and 
contributed  materially  to  the  success  of  Lord  Mahon's 
measure. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Templand,  Thornley,  Dumfriesshire, 

l()th  April,  1842. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Thanks  for  your  castigation  of  the 
Vandal  Wakley,  which  I  have  read  this  morning.  The  sound 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  277 

to  me  is  as  that  of  one  "  whose  speech  is  of  bullocks  " — a  sound 
disgraceful  to  your  Commons'  House  called  Honourable.  You 
did  well  to  rebuke  him.  Nay,  the  "natural  man"  (whose 
thoughts  indeed  are  enmity  to  God)  regrets  rather  that  instead 
of  the  whipping  of  polished  reprimand  it  had  not  been  a  right 
leathern  dog  or  horse  whip  or  solid  American  cowskin ;  but  this, 
I  suppose,  the  forms  of  your  Honourable  House  would  not  permit. 
Mr.  Macaulay,  too,  finds  that  his  last  year's  excursion  was  on  the 
wrong  tack ;  that  even  at  the  risk  of  smelling  of  the  shop,  he 
had  better  take  the  common  one.  This  Bill,  not  so  bad  a  one, 
seems  likely  to  pass.  Thanks  for  the  day  of  small  things. 

I  am  here  these  five  weeks — you  know  on  what  mournful 
errand. *  For  the  last  three  weeks  and  more  I  have  been  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  perfect  solitude,  alone  with  my  own  ugly 
self,  with  my  own  sorrows  and  sins  which  are  ugly  enough,  and 
God's  universe  which  is  beautiful  and  terrible  ever  as  of  old.  It 
is  long  since  I  had  a  time  so  like  a  Sabbath :  full  of  sadness ; 
but  not  miserable,  perhaps  almost  blessed  rather.  "  Blessed  are 
the  dead  :  "  is  it  not  even  so  ? 

This  night  is  to  be  the  last  of  that  sort  of  existence.  To- 
morrow morning  all  bursts  up  into  an  explosion  of  packers, 
carpenters,  &c.  &c.  In  three  days  more  we  have  no  longer  any 
habitation  here.  The  place  that  once  well  knew  us  "  knows  us 
no  more  again  at  all  for  ever/' 

Often  in  these  silent  spring  days  have  I  remembered  where  I 
was  last  year  this  time,t  and  converted  it  all  into  elegiac  figure 
(very  beautiful  even  so,  and  perhaps  most  beautiful  so),  as  at  any 
time,  not  to  speak  of  this  time,  most  things  turn  to  elegy  with 
me.  What  can  I  do  ?  Unspoken  elegy  ;  this  great  old  earth, 
is  she  not  built  on  silent  graves  over-canopied  with  silent  stars  ? 
Perhaps  in  some  ten  days  more  I  shall  return  to  those  pavements 
of  yours ;  I  look  on  them  from  this  distance  with  a  kind  of 
shudder.  But  the  end  of  man  is  not  a  thought;  not  a  manufac- 
ture of  unspoken  elegies.  A  lions  ! 

*  Mrs.  Carlyle's  mother  had  just  died, 
f  Fryston. 


278  THE  LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

My  poor  wife  has  suffered  and  still  suffers  from  one  of  the  sorest 
wounds  a  human  heart  can  experience  here  below.  We  have  but 
one  mother;  no  second  is  appointed  us.  If  you  ever  went  by 
Chelsea  it  might  be  a  kindness  to  call  for  my  poor  Jane. 

Accept  at  any  rate  my  salutation  from  the  mountains,  my 
blessing  and  best  wishes. 

Always  yours  with  affection, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

It  was  during  the  same  session  as  that  which  saw 
the  settlement  of  the  Copyright  question  that  Milnes  called 
the  attention  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  one  of  the 
grievous  anomalies  that  were  still  to  be  found  in  the 
English  Constitution,  the  existence  of  a  law  under  which 
persons  might  be,  and  within  a  very  few  years  actually 
had  been,  sent  to  prison  for  non-attendance  on  public 
worship.  There  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  on 
such  a  question  as  this  he  took  a  strong  view  in  favour 
of  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  right  of  the  individual ; 
but  the  fact  that  it  was  from  the  Tory  benches  that  he 
called  attention  to  this  grievous  wrong  is  significant,  as 
marking  the  independence  of  his  action  throughout  his 
political  career. 

The  question  of  the  Corn  Laws  was  now  absorbing 
public  attention,  both  in  and  out  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  Milnes  spoke  frequently  in  the  debates 
on  the  subject,  supporting  Sir  Eobert  Peel  as  a  rule  in 
his  measures  of  alleviation  (such  as  the  Sliding  Scale 
Act),  though  frequently  expressing  his  regret  that  those 
measures  were  not  of  a  more  liberal  character.  His 
pen  was  in  constant  requisition  at  this  period,  and  it 
was  probably  the  attention  which  had  been  excited  by 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  279 

his  "  One  Tract  More "  which  led  him  to  publish  his 
"Thoughts  on  Purity  of  Election,"  not  as  a  magazine 
or  review  article,  but  as  an  independent  pamphlet. 

He  maintained  during  these  years  a  tolerably  regular 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Sumner,  many  of  whose  letters 
are  of  exceptional  interest. 

Cftarles  Sumner  to  R.  M.  M. 

Boston,  Aug.  1st,  1842. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — My  special  inducement  to  write  at  this 
moment,  beyond  the  acknowledgment  of  your  last  pleasant  letter, 
is  to  let  you  know  that  I  gave  the  Lyells  for  you  the  sheets  of  an 
article  in  the  July  number  of  the  North  American  Review  on 
recent  English  poets,  which  may  perhaps  interest  you.  The 
little  group  dealt  with  are  yourself,  Miss  Barrett,  Sterling,  and 
Doyle.  The  writer  of  the  article  is  a  young  friend  of  mine,  Mr. 
George  S.  Hillard,  a  person  of  exquisite  taste  and  accomplishments, 
and  who  has  a  most  sincere  admiration  of  your  productions.  .  .  . 
Tennyson's  poems  have  been  reprinted  in  Boston,  and  the  re- 
print is  a  precise  copy  of  the  English  edition  in  size,  type,  and 
paper,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  the  two  editions. 
It  is  reprinted  for  the  benefit  of  the  author,  to  whom  the 
publisher  hopes  to  remit  some  honorarium.  Emerson  and  his 
followers  are  ardent  admirers  of  Tennyson,  and  it  is  their 
enthusiastic  unhesitating  praise  that  induced  a  bookseller  to 
undertake  the  reprint.  There  are  some  things  in  the  second 
volume  which  I  admire  very  much.  "  Locksley  Hall"  has  some 
magnificent  verses,  and  others  hardly  intelligible.  "  Godiva  "  is 
unequalled  as  a  narrative  in  verse,  and  the  little  stories  of  Lady 
Clare  and  the  Lord  of  Burleigh  are  told  in  beautiful  measure.  I 
am  struck  with  the  melody  of  his  verse,  its  silver  ring,  and  its 
high  poetic  fancy ;  but  does  it  not  want  elevated  thought  and 
manliness  ?  And  yet,  in  its  way,  what  can  be  more  exquisite 
than  GEnone  making  Mount  Ida  echo  with  her  complaints? 
Was  her  story  ever  told  in  a  sweeter  strain  in  any  language  ? 


280  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

I  understand  that  Emerson  is  afraid  that  Tennyson,  since  he 
published  his  first  volume,  has  become  a  "  fine  gentleman/'  by 
which,  I  suppose,  he  means  that  his  free  thought  and  voluntary 
numbers  will  be  constrained  by  the  conventions  of  the  world. 

I  enjoyed  very  much  your  clever  jeu  d' esprit  on  the  Queen's 
ball,*  and  the  joke  was  much  enhanced  in  this  country  on  the 
debate  being  received  as  true.  It  was  reprinted  in  most  of  our 
newspapers,  and  drew  forth  many  comments.  I  copy  a  sentence 
in  a  letter  which  I  have  received  from  a  friend  in  South  Carolina. 
"  Have  you  seen  that  debate  in  the  Chambre  on  the  British 
Queen  and  Albert,  representing  Monarchists  who  beat  the  French, 
and  Carlists,  Thiersists,  and  all  taking  part  in  it?  How 
despicable!  The  French  are  in  politics  a  parcel  of  coquettish 
girls.- 

So  grim-visaged  war  will  smooth  his  wrinkled  front.  All 
our  differences  will  be  adjusted.  Lord  Ashburton  has  evinced 
an  earnest  disposition  to  peace,  and  I  need  not  say  that  Webster 
has  cordially  responded  to  it.  I  am  glad  the  Boundary  question 
has  gone  now  to  the  limbo  where  are 

"  Cowls,  hoods,  and  habits  with  their  wearers  tossed, 
And  fluttered  into  rags." 

I  think  the  whole  negotiation  when  it  sees  the  light  will  be 
much  to  the  credit  of  both  negotiators.     .     .     .     Longfellow, 


*  Milnes  and  Charles  Buller  had  written  a  very  clever  jew  d? esprit  in 
the  shape  of  a  report  of  an  imaginary  debate  in  the  French  Chamber  on 
the  question  of  a  Fancy  Ball  at  Buckingham  Palace,  at  which,  among 
other  historic  characters  represented,  were  some  of  those  English 
sovereigns  who  had  beaten  the  French,  whilst  the  staff  of  the  Frencli 
Embassy  were  to  come  in  with  ropes  round  their  necks,  like  the  burgesses 
of  Calais  before  Edward  III.  The  lively  squib  was  only  meant  to 
amuse  the  readers  of  the  morning  newspaper  in  which  it  appeared ;  but, 
to  the  surprise  of  its  authors,  it  was  taken  seriously  elsewhere  than  in 
South  Carolina.  Sir  James  Graham,  on  reading  it,  rushed  off  to  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  great  agitation,  saying,  "  There  is  the  devil  to  pay  in 
France  over  this  foolish  ball."  Fortunately,  Peel  himself  was  in  the 
secret,  and  subsequently  told  Milues  the  story  of  Graham's  alarm. 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EA8T.  281 

who  is  a  most  amiable  friend  of  mine,  is  now  at  Marienberg,  by 
Boppart,  on  the  Rhine.  I  think  he  will  pass  through  London 
in  September  or  October.  If  you  by  any  accident  should  be 
there,  I  trust  he  may  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you.  Dickens 
was  so  kind  as  to  invite  him  to  stay  with  him.  Lord  Morpeth 
has  shot  off  among  the  Indians,  so  that  he  lost  the  Great 
Western  on  the  10th,  which  he  had  intended  to  take.  He  has 
seen  the  country  very  thoroughly,  and  has  made  himself  very 
popular  everywhere.  Have  you  seen  his  lines  on  Niagara?  The 
best  ever  written  on  the  great  Fall.  When  shall  we  have  yours? 
Let  me  hear  from  you  soon. 

Believe  me,  ever  and  ever  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNEB. 


T.  Carlyle  to  E.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  August  Ylth,  1842. 

DEAR  MILNES, — .  .  .  .  I  have  made  a  tour  in  the  Netherlands, 
of  thirty  hours'  extent,  since  I  wrote  to  you  :  literally  a  fact. 
Spring  Rice  took  me  in  one  of  his  revenue  cutters — a  voyage 
really  worth  making.  The  doll  gods  and  gingerbread  idolatries 
of  that  people,  with  the  fruit  of  long  centuries  of  industry  and 
healthy  victorious  energy  growing  up  beside  all  that,  were  very 
striking  to  me.  Les  braves  Beiges  !  They  are  a  Deutsch  people ; 
I  could  read  their  language  when  I  saw  it  printed  :  but  the 
educated  of  them  all  affect  to  be  a  kind  of  mongrel  French,  and 
go  about  in  moustachios  and  sugar-loaf  hats — the  blockheads  ! 
They  have  still  a  remnant  of  quasi- worship  among  them  (respect- 
abler,  perhaps,  than  our  remnant  of  "sincere-cant"),  and  crowds 
of  the  nastiest  ugly  fat  priests,  whom  you  could  not  occasion- 
ally divest  yourself  of  a  horrible  passing  desire  to  slaughter,  and 
cure  as  bacon. 

What  a  melancholy  and  strange  thing  is  that  Chartist  hunger- 
insurrection  in  your  end  of  the  Island  !  What  a  country  is  it 
where  the  Governing  class  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  all  considerations, 


282  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

and  will  hear  nothing  till  it  hear  the  actual  alarm-bell  droning ; 
see  nothing  till  it  see  Irving' s  fires  blazing  ! 

I  declare  myself  made  very  sad  with  these  things  ;  it  seems 
to  me  a  long  tract  of  black  and  ever  blacker  days  is  beginning 
for  England.  A  man  ought  not  to  vote  for  Corn- Laws  ;  hang  it, 
no !  But  I  will  not  quarrel  with  Richard  Milnes,  let  him  vote 
for  what  he  may.  O  Peel,  Peel ! — O  Carlyle,  Carlyle,  for  it  is 
Ikon  too,  and  all  the  world  ! 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

A  longer  journey  than  any  which  he  had  previously 
taken  occupied  Milnes  during  the  latter  part  of  1842 
and  the  spring  of  the  following  year.  This  was  a  visit 
to  the  Levant  and  Egypt,  the  literary  fruits  of  which 
he  afterwards  gave  to  the  world  in  the  volume  of  poems 
called  "Palm  Leaves."  In  his  preface  to  this  little 
volume  the  author  explains  that  he  would  probably  have 
written  an  account  of  his  tour,  which  occupied  the 
greater  part  of  a  year,  but  for  one  decisive  consideration 
— "  his  ignorance  of  the  languages  of  the  countries  he 
was  visiting."  He  saw  much,  however,  and  observed 
much  during  his  tour,  and  according  to  his  wont,  he 
made  himself  at  home  in  the  society  of  many  different 
cities.  At  Athens,  where  he  again  found  himself  after 
an  interval  of  many  years  ;  at  Constantinople,  where  he 
was  admitted  to  the  intimate  friendship  of  Sir  Stratford 
Canning ;  at  Smyrna,  at  Cairo,  and  on  the  Nile,  he  lost 
no  opportunity  of  drinking-in  the  spirit  of  the  local 
life,  and  of  making  himself  familiar  not  merely  with 
manners  and  customs,  but  with  modes  of  thought  which 
were  unfamiliar  to  him. 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  283 

All  the  more  is  it  to  be  regretted  that  he  confined 
his  reminiscences  of  his  travels  to  the  volume  of  poetry 
I  have  mentioned,  and  to  one  or  two  letters  to  friends 
in  England.  He  did,  it  is  true,  keep  a  journal  of  his 
voyage  on  the  Nile,  but  it  is  of  so  fragmentary  a 
character  as  to  be  of  little  use  for  the  purposes  of  a 
biography.  Nor  are  many  anecdotes  preserved  regard- 
ing his  personal  adventures  during  his  absence  from 
home.  His  friends,  it  is  true,  assumed  many  things 
regarding  him,  and  the  character  of  these  assumptions 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  in  a  copy  of  "  Palm 
Leaves,"  once  the  property  of  Harriet  Martineau,  and 
now  in  the  library  at  Fryston,  certain  sketches,  evidently 
from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Thackeray,  have  been  introduced, 
in  which  Milnes  is  depicted  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  an  Eastern  Pasha,  one  of  the 
sketches  going  so  far  as  to  represent  him  in  the  act  of 
removing  the  head  of  a  presumably  faithless  spouse. 
Nowadays  Eastern  travel  has  become  so  common  that 
those  who  indulge  in  it  are  free  from  the  remarks  and 
conjectures  which  fifty  years  ago  attached  to  the 
Oriental  traveller.  Milnes's  fame  among  his  friends, 
however,  and  above  all  that  happy  faculty  which  he 
possessed  of  making  himself  at  home  everywhere  and 
in  every  class  of  society,  gave  rise  to  a  specially 
luxuriant  crop  of  tales  regarding  his  personal  adven- 
tures, tales  for  which  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
there  was  in  his  case  any  better  foundation  than  in 
that  of  any  of  his  contemporaries. 


284  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  G.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Smyrna,  Nov.  Zlth,  1842. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — My  sister  has  sent  me  your  letter  of 
August  28th,  and  I  send  this  to  her  to  transmit  to  you.  .  .  . 
Before  I  left  England  I  ordered  some  English  papers  to  be  sent 
you  regularly,  and  my  sister  says  she  has  speeded  you  some.  I 
wrote  to  Colvile  from  Constantinople,  telling  him  to  tell  you 
of  my  whereabouts.  I  have  been  in  Greece  again,  and  wrote  an 
indignant  sonnet  on  the  little  progress  ten  years  had  made  there. 
The  selection  of  King  Otho  has  certainly  been  most  infelicitous. 
I  do  not  think  him  the  mere  duffer  that  most  people  make  him 
out.  But  he  seems  to  have  no  faculty  for  his  position,  and  he 
has  got  a  foolish  little  pretty  wife,  fond  of  dress  and  dancing, 
who  increases  his  unpopularity.  He  has  built  a  great  stucco 
barrack  under  Hymettus  by  way  of  a  palace,  which  has  spent 
all  his  private  income  and  disfigured  the  town.  It  will  be  a 
great  mercy  if  his  notion  of  playing  a  miniature  Louis  Philippe 
among  parties  and  persons  in  Gre.-ce  does  not  bring  on  him  an 
Alibaud  or  Fieschi. 

I  had  always  heard  that  the  Franks  of  the  Levant  kept 
themselves  very  much  apart  from  the  Turks,  but  I  had  no  notion 
how  absolutely  apart  they  were.  Here  and  at  Constantinople 
there  is  nothing  but  an  odd  dress  or  two  to  warn  you,  you  are 
not  in  some  French  or  Italian  town ;  and  there  is  not  only  no 
intercourse  with  the  Orientals,  but  no  mention  of  them  in  con- 
versation, no  allusion  to  their  existence.  No  wonder  that 
travellers  write  so  ignorantly.  Indeed,  I  can't  see  how  they  are 
to  do  otherwise  if  they  write  at  all.  I  dined  with  the  Foreign 
Minister,  and  was  talked  of  as  if  I  had  banqueted  at  the 
Zoological  Gardens.  All  this  makes  a  tour  here  much  less  interest- 
ing than  it  might  be.  I  am  going  to  Egypt  to  see  that  old  lion 
Mehemet  Ali,  and  then  to  England.  The  time  of  year  compels 
me  to  give  up  Syria,  which  I  do  not  care  much  about  except 
for  Jerusalem,  where  our  new  Bishopric  is  getting  on  very  well, 
except  that  one  of  the  chaplains  has  somewhat  complicated  his 
spiritual  functions  by  setting  up  as  a  brandy  merchant.  The 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  285 

English  Church  is  rising  to  completion  on  Mount  Zion.  We 
have  great  news  from  China,  not  for  the  glory  but  for  the  peace 
sake.  It  will,  however,  be  the  death  of  the  grande  nation  if  the 
Emperor  insists  upon  the  English  having  a  monopoly  of  the 
trade,  and  refuses  the  establishment  of  the  Consulates  of  other 
nations ;  and  even  without  this  one  hardly  sees  how  France  can 
come  forward  and  ask  to  share  the  advantages  of  our  peace  after 
having  so  furiously  slanged  against  the  wickedness  of  the  war. 
Now  that  we  have  got  the  Cabul  prisoners  and  destroyed  all  the 
fortresses,  we  are  to  evacuate  Afghanistan,  thus  leaving  behind 
us  a  frontier  exasperated  against  English  power  and  delighted  at 
any  time  to  take  part  against  us.  But  "the  Duke'"  says  it 
could  not  be  occupied,  and  he  must  be  right ;  at  least,  it  is  most 
comfortable  to  think  so. 

One  would  almost  wish  you  a  wreck  once  a  week  for  some- 
thing to  do.  Tell  me  whether  you  get  any  American  books,  or 
it  will  be  absurd  my  sending  you  a  hot-pressed  octavo,  when  you 
get  the  same  for  twenty,  cents  in  a  Yankee  newspaper,  especially 
with  such  a  book-devourer  as  you  are,  who  eat  up  three  volumes 
per  hour. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  "stability  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire/'  the  great  slang  of  these  parts.  I  think  it  will  last  you 
and  me  out.  When  the  crash  comes  it  will  probably  come  in 
some  way  totally  different  from  what  any  of  us  have  expected,  and 
be  attended  with  results  that  have  come  into  nobody's  head. 

You  can  write  to  me  to  Serlby,  Bawtry,  Yorkshire. 

It  should  be  said  that  MacCarthy,  who  had  now 
entered  the  public  service,  was  at  this  time  filling 
a  post  at  Turk's  Islands  which  had  been  obtained  for 
him  through  Milnes's  influence,  whence  he  still  kept  up 
his  regular  correspondence  with  his  old  friend. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

Private.  Smyrna,  Nov.  28^,  1842. 

DEAR  SIR  ROBERT  PEEL, — It  is  just  possible  you  may  have 
some  Christmas  leisure  to  read  a  gossiping  letter ;  if  not,  pray 


286  TEE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

throw  this  into  the  fire,  for  I  can  tell  you  nothing  that  you  do 
not  know,  or  at  least  cannot  know  from  a  hundred  better  sources 
of  information.  I  have  spent  the  last  two  or  three  months  in 
Greece  and  Turkey.  The  former  country  I  had  visited  some  ten 
years  ago,  and  I  felt  quite  indignant  at  the  little  advance  which 
it  has  made  since  its  independence,  until  I  reflected  how  slow  the 
progress  of  a  country  exhausted  by  revolution  must  necessarily 
be.  There  is  security  of  person  and  property,  an  increase  in 
some  branches  of  production,  such  as  the  currant  vine,  and  a 
few  roads  are  in  process  of  construction ;  but  whatever  good 
one  finds  cannot,  I  fear,  be  attributed  to  the  Government.  All 
one  could  hear  of  the  acts  of  the  King  and  the  authorities  was 
so  stupid,  or  worse,  that  one  almost  felt  sure  there  must  be 
another  side  of  the  question,  but  I  was  sorry  to  be  unable  to 
find  any  other  excuses  than  arise  from  the  difficulties  of  the 
case  and  the  incapacity  of  those  who  have  to  deal  with  them. 
There  is  no  need  to  make  out  the  King  a  monster  of  perfidy 
and  tyranny  to  explain  his  conduct.  Taken  as  a  young  man 
whose  mind  has  been  subtilised,  not  refined,  by  a  Jesuit 
education,  who  carries  a  natural  frivolity  into  acquired  habits 
of  industry,  who  tries  to  act  a  miniature  Louis  Philippe  among 
the  parties  and  persons  with  'whom  he  is  surrounded,  with 
about  the  same  proportion  of  ability  between  himself  and 
that  personage  that  there  is  between  his  ministers  and  Guizot 
or  Thiers,  and  his  conduct  is  very  explicable.  The  great  evil 
is  in  the  absence  of  some  master-mind  which  should  control 
the  King.  I  suppose  Mavrocordati  is  the  best  of  the  Greeks, 
but  he  is  always  a  party  man,  and  has  enemies  whom  the 
King  is  able  to  play  off  against  him. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  Foreign  Ministers  have  been 
compelled  by  circumstances  to  interfere  as  they  have  done  almost 
with  the  personal  expenditure  of  the  Sovereign,  so  that  he 
evidently  regards  them  as  spies  upon  his  affairs,  and  derives  no 
advantage  from  their  presence  and  advice.  He  has  built  a  huge 
palace,  the  design,  I  believe,  of  his  father,  which  might  look 
massive  and  imposing  in  the  middle  of  a  Bavarian  sand-plain, 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  287 

but  is  simply  heavy  and  disfiguring  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Parthenon.  His  pretty,  dressy  wife,  too,  does  him  no  good,  as 
she  does  nothing  to  please  or  attach  the  people.  I  think  it  is 
matter  of  deep  regret  that  the  form  of  the  Constitution  was  not 
fixed  at  first.  It  may  be  very  true  that  the  country  is  not  fit  for 
representative  government,  but  almost  anything  must  be  better 
than  the  action  of  indefinite  desires  and  confused  hopes  on  so  ex- 
citable a  people.  If  it  comes  into  some  Greek's  head  that  the  Con- 
stitution may  be  got  by  removing  the  King,  his  life  is  not  safe  an 
hour.  The  parties  most  to  blame  in  the  whole  concern  appear  to  me 
to  have  been  the  Regency,  who  have  laid  no  one  solid  foundation, 
supplied  no  one  of  the  national  necessities,  and  have  left  to  this 
poor  young  man  such  a  task  as  the  best  head  and  heart  would 
surmount  with  difficulty, 

"The  stability  of  the  Ottoman  Empire"  is  become  such 
diplomatic  slang  that  one  can  hardly  write  about  it,  yet  after  all 
it  is  the  absorbing  subject  of  one's  reflections  in  Turkey.  It 
is  quite  true  that  one  feels  at  Constantinople  that  the  Turks  are 
only  encamped  in  Europe,  that  it  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a 
Greek  town  with  mosques  in  it,  and  that  the  Turks  are  there  to 
govern  and  to  pray.  This  governing  is  carried  to  such  an  extent 
that  every  Turk  not  in  office  or  public  employment  is  in  fact  in 
disgrace,  and  holds  himself  retired  from  society.  But  it  is  quite 
true  that  no  part  of  the  element  cJiretien  about  which  the  French 
talk  so  much,  is  fit  or  indeed  has  any  inclination  to  assume  the 
supremacy,  and  that  so  long  as  the  Porte  governs  its  Christian 
subjects  with  moderation,  and  abstains  from  capricious  insolence, 
and  is  impressionable  by  the  suggestions  of  Foreign  Ministers  on 
such  points,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  they  will  prefer 
its  authority  to  that  of  any  other  Government.  The  chief 
difficulty  of  the  Porte  seems  to  be  that  of  affording  sufficient  pro- 
tection against  local  tyranny  and  injustice  in  the  more  distant 
parts  of  the  Empire,  in  which  the  Sultan's  authority  is  little 
regarded.  As  regards  the  advantage  of  personal  intercourse  with 
the  Turks,  you  have  no  more  at  Constantinople  than  in  London, 
except  as  a  matter  of  business.  They  are  never  alluded  to  in 


288  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    EOUGHTON. 

French  society,  and  though  I  dined  with  the  Reis  Effendi, 
I  can  hardly  say  I  learned  anything  Oriental  on  the  banks  of  the 
Bosphorus. 

The  Russians  are  building  a  most  pompous  palace  that  looks 
as  if  it  expected  the  Emperor  immediately ;  which, in  this  country 
of  representation,  contrasts  sharply  with  the  log-houses  where  the 
French  and  our  Embassy  are  established.  The  French  palace  is 
half  rebuilt,  but  has  been  stopped  for  the  last  two  years  for  want  of 
funds,  which  has  still  a  worse  appearance  than  the  ruins  of  ours. 

I  had  intended  to  go  hence  to  Beyroot,  but  as  that  place  is 
now  blockaded  by  the  insurgents,  and  the  Pasha  all  but  in  their 
hands,  I  should  be  unable  to  travel  about,  and  must  content  my- 
self with  visiting  the  "  old  man  wonderful "  in  Egypt.  .  .  . 
We  received  the  Indian  and  China  news  at  Constantinople,  and 
our  London  friend  Bourqueney  evinced  an  affectionate  sympathy 
which  would  get  him  stoned  at  Paris. 

Will  you  present  my  respectful  regards  to  Lady  Peel. 

Believe  me,  &c., 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

The  friends  who  were  amusing  themselves  by  in- 
venting and  retailing  fables  as  to  the  life  which  Milnes 
was  leading  in  the  East,  would  doubtless  have  been  sur- 
prised if  they  had  been  permitted  to  read  this  letter, 
with  its  proofs  of  the  writer's  clear  insight  into  the 
great  political  factors  then  at  work  in  that  quarter  of 
the  world,  and  his  sober  judgment  upon  men  and  things. 
In  the  copy  of  "  Palm  Leaves  "  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  Miss  Martineau  has  written  on  the  title-page, 
"  Worthily  read  only  in  the  East  or  by  philosophers 
who  are  at  home  everywhere."  And  it  is  hardly  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  so  far  had  the  author  imbibed 
the  spirit  of  the  East,  that  the  ordinary  reader  who 
knew  nothing  of  that  spirit  must  have  been  at  a  loss 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  289 

to  understand  Milnes's  views  upon  many  questions.  To 
a  true-souled  woman  like  Harriet  Martineau  there  was 
nothing  obscure  or  questionable  about  them,  and  she  at 
least,  as  the  annotations  in  her  copy  of  "  Palm  Leaves  " 
attest,  believed  that  Milnes  brought  back  from  this 
journey  to  the  East  a  store  of  golden  grain. 

At  Cairo,  Milnes  was  received  by  Mehemet  Ali,  with 
whom  he  had  an  interview  of  considerable  interest. 
He  did  not  stay  long,  however,  in  the  Egyptian  capital, 
and  on  the  27th  December  started  on  his  journey  up 
the  Nile,  on  which  he  spent  two  months.  The  journal 
which  he  kept  from  day  to  day  while  in  the  boat 
unfortunately  tells  us  little  more  than  the  state  of  the 
weather  and  the  quarter  from  which  the  wind  blew. 
Many  Englishmen  were  on  the  river  at  the  same  time 
as  Milnes,  so  that  he  had  no  lack  of  company,  not  only 
at  Karnak  and  Philse,  where  he  meditated  among  the 
tombs  and  amused  himself  in  deciphering  inscriptions, 
but  at  the  various  stopping-places.  The  journey 
seems,  however,  to  have  been  a  monotonous  one,  and 
one  can  imagine,  in  spite  of  the  impression  which  was 
made  upon  his  mind  by  the  almost  immeasurable  an- 
tiquity of  the  memorials  of  the  past  which  he  saw,  that 
he  found  the  time  pass  slowly.  Here  is  an  entry  for 
one  day : — 

All  day  drifted  down, 
Wind  quite  contrary ; 

Dined  in  my  dressing-gown, 
And  sculled  when  it  was  airy; 

Smoked  a  new  pipe-stick, 

Which  almost  made  me  sick. 


290  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    BOUGHT  ON. 

Mrs.  Milnes  notes  in  her  diary  that  in  March  of 
this  year,  1843,  she  heard  a  gentleman  at  a  party  in 
London  tell  how  in  going  down  the  Nile  he  heard 
someone  singing  in  a  boat  near  him,  and  at  once  said, 
"  That  is  Milnes's  voice." 

It  was  not  till  the  close  of  May  that  Milnes  him- 
self returned  to  England,  having  travelled  by  way  of 
Malta,  where  he  had  a  vexatious  detention  in  quarantine, 
and  Marseilles. 

One  of  the  first  to  welcome  him  was  Carlyle. 

T.  Carlyle  to  E.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  May  19M,  1843. 

CARO  Mio,  —  In  good  hour  hast  thou  returned.  The 
impatience  of  the  public  was  fast  mounting  towards  anxiety. 
Everybody  said,  We  cannot  want  our  Milnes !  I  am  here  on 
Saturday  morning  entirely  free,  and  if  you  came  before  one 
o'clock  we  could  fly  out  into  the  lanes  and  escape  the  profanum 
vulgus.  I  am  also  at  home,  I  think,  every  evening  till  Tuesday. 
Thirdly,  I  will  call  at  Pall  Mall,  No.  26,  the  first  day  I  pass 
within  wind  of  it,  and  so  let  us  meet  quam  primum. 

Yours  ever, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

He  was  quickly  at  home  again  in  his  social  haunts, 
and  busy  as  of  old  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Such 
leisure  as  he  had  was  given  to  the  preparation  of  "  Palm 
Leaves  "  for  the  press. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

May  30^,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — I  should  have  written  to  you  by  the 
last  packet,  but  that  I  wished  to  lay  before  some  high  quarters 
the  suggestions  you  had  written  regarding  Colonial  customs. 


JOURNEY   TO    THE    EAST.  291 

Gladstone,  who  is  now  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  in 
the  Cabinet,  wrote  to  me  two  days  ago,  as  follows : — "  The  sub- 
ject on  which  MacCarthy  writes  is  onje  on  which  we  have  moved 
the  Treasury  twelve  months  ago.  I  took  advantage  of  his 
extract  to  stir  the  matter  a  little,  with  what  chance  of  success  I 
do  not  know  enough  of  the  circumstances  to  judge.  But  at 
all  events,  I  think  your  friend's  observations  on  the  subject  will 
do  nothing  to  weaken  his  character  and  claim  for  promotion.  I 
much  regret  that  I  have  no  official  influence  upon  the  appoint- 
ments in  that  department,  but  if  at  any  time  anything  should  be 
in  my  power  you  will  find  me  willing/'  I  only  hope  the  vacancy 
at  Nassau  will  not  occur  just  yet,  and  that  I  may  have  due 
warning  of  it.  ...  Sir  Robert  is  a  terrible  stickler  for 
priority  of  claims,  and  has  a  horror,  it  seems  to  me,  of  putting 
anybody  (except  a  lord)  in  any  place  which  can  be  suspected  of 
having  been  obtained  by  favouritism.  He  is  very  civil  to  me, 
and  I  have  no  objection  to  asking  him  for  anything  so  reasonable 
whenever  the  proper  time  for  so  doing  arrives.  I  got  back  to 
England  about  twenty  days  ago,  returning  through  quarantine 
at  Malta,  the  Holy  Week  at  Rome,  and  a  few  days  and  dinners 
at  Paris.  I  went  to  the  English  College,  and  saw  the  little 
room  where  I  first  saw  you.  Dr.  Baggs  seemed  to  be  managing 
the  thing  successfully,  and  was  talked  of  as  likely  to  get  an 
English  bishopric.  His  Holiness  had  lost  his  polypus,  and  was 
likely  to  live  ten  years,  and  Cardinal  Acton  was  thought  to  have 
a  chance  of  succeeding  him.  The  English  society  had  been 
detestable — slang  lords  and  ladies,  Russian  Grand  Duchesses,  all 
sorts  of  blackguards  and  blackguardesses  from  London  rolling 
about  in  the  Borghese,  and  Lady  Davy  disgusted  with  the  whole. 
Kestner  had  hurt  his  leg  seriously,  but  it  was  getting  better, 
though  he  said  he  had  "  still  much  sentiment  in  his  chin  bone/' 
Lady  Clare  had  turned  Romanist,  and  had  been  followed  by 
other  friends  of  hers.  Lord  Chesterfield  had  had  printed  cards 
of  the  meets  of  the  hounds  : — "  Monday,  at  Cecilia  Metella ;  on 
Wednesday  at  the  Coliseum,  and  on  Saturday  at  the  Ponte 
Molle."  It  was  an  effort  to  get  from  the  Italian  spring, 


292  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

especially  as  Rio  wanted  me  to  go  with  him  to  Urbino  and  other 
out-of-the-way  parts,  where  he  was  going  to  get  materials  for 
the  concluding  volumes  of  his  Christian  Art.  But  I  saw  that 
public  questions  of  some  interest  were  coming  on  in  Parliament, 
and  did  not  think  I  had  a  right  to  be  away  longer.  At  Paris, 
I  saw  M.  Guizot,  who  is  very  strong  in  the  infinite  weakness  of 
his  opponents  ;  Lamartine,  who  has  leapt  over  the  centre  gauclie, 
and  declared  himself  all  but  a  Chartist ;  G.  Sand,  who  is  tres 
rongee,  and  writing  a  book  I  shall  send  you  when  it  is  finished ; 
Tocqueville,  who  is  in  strong  opposition  with  the  Government 
for  what  he  calls  materialising  France;  and  Louis  Philippe, 
who  has  not  got  an  additional  grey  hair  for  all  the  sorrows  and 
troubles  of  his  last  two  years.  Montalembert  was  returning 
from  Madeira  with  his  wife  quite  set  up  by  her  wonderful 
pleasure.  They  told  me  in  London  it  had  been  the  dullest 
session  and  season  ever  known.  I  can  see  at  once  the  working 
of  a  social  change;  the  gradual  pauperisation  of  the  upper 
classes  is  distinct  and  tangible.  I  never  saw  so  many  houses  to 
let.  Barouches  are  turning  into  flies,  chariots  into  broughams. 
There  are  fewer  balls ;  and  it  is  getting  rather  respectable  than 
not,  to  have  little  money  to  spend.  As  long  as  they  were 
rich  the  aristocracy  preached  up  the  indispensableness  of  wealth, 
and  now  they  are  getting  poor  they  will  declaim  against  the 
vulgar  ostentation  of  it.  Although  the  declination  will  pervade 
the  whole  rank  of  landed  proprietors,  and  small  ones  such  as 
ourselves  are  the  first  to  feel  it,  I  cannot  help  thinking  the 
general  social  effect  will  be  a  good  one,  and  that  we  may  get 
something  in  compensation  for  luxury  which  nobody  enjoyed, 
and  pleasures  which  left  everybody  discontented.  Colvile  is 
looking  well  and  cheerfuller.  He  is  more  rdpandu  and  appreciated 
than  he  used  to  be,  and  is,  I  think,  gratified  by  it.  O'Brien 
has  spoken  well  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  all  the  better 
for  having  been  ill  during  winter.  His  mind  seems  somewhat 
less  flaunty,  and  his  self-complacency  somewhat  subdued.  Lady 
James  laughs  as  silverly  as  ever ;  her  daughter  not  married,  and 
her  son  in  the  Guards.  There  is  still  much  talk 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  293 

about  Puseyism.  A  sermon  of  Dr.  Pusey's  is  actually  under 
the  examination  of  a  Board  of  Heresy  at  Oxford.  The  Bishop 
of  London  has  tried  to  steer  between  the  two  parties,  and  has 
been  worried  into  slight  paralysis  in  consequence ;  part  of  his 
diocese  openly  refusing  to  regard  his  instructions.  I  found 
them  very  full  of  Puseyism  at  Rome ;  and  Baggs  had  read  a 
discourse  in  which  he  cited  largely  the  work  of  an  "  intelligente 
laico  intitulato  Un  Tratello  dipiu."  *  Carlyle  has  written  a  book 
which  is,  as  Mademoiselle  Dejazet  says  of  a  certain  passion, 
"  toujours  la  meme  et  toujours  naive."  It  would  be  very 
dangerous  if  turned  into  the  vernacular  and  generally  read.  It 
is  most  unjust  and  insulting  to  all  but  the  utterly  ignorant 
and  helpless,  calling  Peel  "  Sir  Jabez  Windbag,"  and  every 
attempt  at  legislation  or  good  of  any  kind  a  "  Morrison's  pill." 
It  has  sold  very  well ;  and  the  author  looks  a  little  fatter  and 
better  for  it.  Rogers  keeps  wonderfully  well,  though  a  little 
deafer  and  crosser  than  I  left  him,  going  on  as  usual,  saying 
hard  things  and  doing  soft  ones.  Miss  Wynn  is  well,  and 
always  inquires  after  you ;  there  seems  no  more  chance  of  her 
becoming  Madame  v.  Ense.  My  sister  is  just  come  to  town 
for  a  few  weeks,  and  in  pretty  good  health.  I  wish  I  could  say 
the  same  of  my  mother,  who  causes  us  considerable  anxiousness. 
My  father  is  as  strong  as  he  was  before  his  accident,  and  says 
he  does  not  intend  to  give  me  such  a  chance  again.  He  talks 
of  shutting  up  Fryston  for  some  time  as  costing  too  much  to 
live  at.  Of  myself  I  have  little  to  tell  you.  I  go  on  piano, 
piano,  expecting  daily  less  of  the  world — and  getting  less  too. 
I  am  contracting  my  acquaintance,  losing  my  desire  of  knowing 
and  liking  everybody,  and  becoming  like  other  people,  having 
got  little  good  out  of  my  originality — except  that  of  letting  it 
have  its  usual  run.  And  now  for  yourself.  I  can  do  nothing 
but  congratulate ;  go  on  bravely  fighting  against  the  tedious 
hours,  and  some  good  must  come  to  you  in  the  end.  I  must 
rejoice  that  you  are  in  a  line  of  decent  independence  of  me,  and 
of  everything  but  your  own  conduct.  If  I  can  end  by  seeing 

*  "  One  Tract  More." 


294  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOVGHTON. 

you  fairly  righted  in  the  world,  I  shall  not  have  lived  in  vain; 
but  all  still  is  in  your  own  hands,  your  own  mind  ;  and  again 
and  again  God  bless  you  ! 

R.  M.  MILNES. 

We  are  all  in  a  great  row  about  Factory  Education.  The 
Dissenters  have  shown  a  bitterness  and  fanaticism  worthy  of  the 
palmiest  days  of  the  Church.  The  Government  have  acted 
wisely  and  weakly,  but  will,  I  hope,  put  out  a  little  strength 
to  carry  the  matter  through,  and  not  throw  the  whole  onus  on 
such  as  me,  who  am  risking  my  seat  at  Pomfret  for  them. 

There  is  a  passage  towards  the  close  of  the  foregoing 
letter — that  in  which  Milnes  speaks  of  MacCarthy's 
personal  affairs — which  affords  an  opportunity  for  some 
allusion  to  one  of  the  traits  of  the  writer's  character 
which  can  never  be  overlooked.  I  allude  to  the 
generous  aid  which  he  was  constantly  giving  to  his 
personal  friends  and  to  others  who  had  claims  upon  his 
sympathy.  As  the  reader  has  already  heen  told,  it  is 
not  my  purpose  in  these  pages  to  lay  before  the  world 
a  catalogue  of  Milnes'  benefactions,  but  it  is  only  right 
that  I  should  explain  the  passage  in  the  letter  to 
MacCarthy  by  the  statement  that  Milnes  had  not  only 
procured  for  him  his  appointment  in  the  public  service, 
but  had  helped  him  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  in  other 
ways.  Throughout  his  life  Sir  Charles  MacCarthy  never 
forgot  his  obligations  to  his  friend ;  but  it  was  rarely 
indeed,  and  only  in  response  to  the  direct  observations  of 
MacCarthy  himself,  that  Milnes  ever  referred  to  them. 

Appeals  of  every  kind  were,  however,  constantly 
pouring  in  upon  Milnes,  and  his  purse — which  was  not 
at  this  period  of  his  life,  if,  indeed,  it  ever  was,  a  heavy 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  295 

one — was  ever  in  danger  of  exhaustion  in  consequence 
of  his  ready  response  to  these  petitions  for  assistance. 
Nor  was  it  to  his  personal  generosity  alone  that 
appeals  were  made.  Sir  Eobert  Peel  had  formed  a  habit 
of  consulting  him  with  regard  to  the  bestowal  of  the 
slender  pecuniary  assistance  which  is  all  that  the  Crown 
reserves  for  men  and  women  of  genius,  or  those  who  are 
dependent  upon  them.  It  was  about  this  period  that  a 
curious  question  of  this  kind  was  referred  to  Milnes  by 
Sir  Eobert  Peel.  The  friends  of  the  great  poet  who 
had  been  Milnes's  fellow-student  at  Cambridge  were 
anxious  that  he  should  be  placed  in  a  position  which 
would  enable  him  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  culti- 
vation of  his  muse.  They  accordingly  resolved  to  apply 
to  the  Prime  Minister  on  his  behalf  for  a  pension  which, 
though  moderate  in  amount,  would  relieve  him  from  the 
necessity  of  entering  upon  any  profession.  It  was 
through  Milnes  that  they  hoped  to  reach  the  ear  of  Sir 
Eobert  Peel.  No  one  was  more  friendly  to  the  project 
than  was  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  bnt,  as  usual,  he 
encountered  the  first  suggestion  of  the  scheme  by  a 
number  of  objections  more  or  less  cogent.  It  was  a  stage 
through  which  he  always  passed  in  his  relations  with 
any  object  with  which  he  had  real  and  hearty  sympathy. 
His  love  of  paradox  demanded  gratification  in  the  first 
instance,  and  it  was  not  until  he  had  played  the  part  of 
devil's  advocate  that  he  ever  heartily  espoused  any  cause. 

An  amusing  story  has  been  told  regarding  him  at  this 
stage  of  the  movement  on  behalf  of  Tennyson. 

"  Eichard  Milnes,"  said  Carlyle  one  day,  withdrawing 


296  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

his  pipe  from  his  mouth,  as  they  were  seated  together 
in  the  little  house  in  Cheyne  Row,  "  when  are  you  going 
to  get  that  pension  for  Alfred  Tennyson  ?  " 

"  My  dear  Carlyle,"  responded  Milnes,  "  the  thing  is 
not  so  easy  as  you  seem  to  suppose.  What  will  my 
constituents  say  if  I  do  get  the  pension  for  Tennyson  ? 
They  know  nothing  ahout  him  or  his  poetry,  and  they 
will  probably  think  he  is  some  poor  relation  of  my  own, 
and  that  the  whole  affair  is  a  job." 

Solemn  and  emphatic  was  Carlyle's  response. 

"  Richard  Milnes,  on  the  Day  of  Judgment,  when 
the  Lord  asks  you  why  you  didn't  get  that  pension  for 
Alfred  Tennyson,  it  will  not  do  to  lay  the  blame  on 
your  constituents  ;  it  is  you  that  will  be  damned." 

Nobody  knew  better  than  Carlyle  that  there  was  not 
the  slightest  danger  of  Milnes  incurring  the  Divine 
wrath  on  this  score.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Peel  was 
already  in  communication  with  him  on  the  subject  of 
Tennyson's  pension,  and  very  singular  were  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  the  question.  Two  applications 
had  been  made  to  Peel  for  a  pension  of  £200.  One 
was  on  behalf  of  Tennyson,  a  young  man  in  whose 
glorious  future  comparatively  few  at  that  time  believed, 
whilst  the  other  came  from  the  friends  of  Sheridan 
Knowles,  the  dramatic  author,  on  whose  behalf  age  and 
infirmity,  as  well  as  past  services  to  English  literature, 
were  with  reason  pleaded.  Peel  consulted  Milnes  as  to 
the  course  which  he  ought  to  take,  accompanying  the 
appeal  by  the  statement  that  for  himself  he  knew  abso- 
lutely nothing  either  of  Mr.  Tennyson  or  of  Mr.  Knowles. 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  297 

"  What ! "  said  Milnes,  "  have  you  never  seen  the 
name  of  Sheridan  Knowles  on  a  playbill  ?  " 

"  No/'  replied  Peel. 

"And  have  you  never  read  a  poem  of  Tennyson's?" 

"  No,"  was  again  the  answer,  accompanied  by  a 
request  that  Milnes  would  let  him  see  something  which 
Tennyson  had  written.  Accordingly  Milnes  sent  to  Sir 
Robert  Peel  the  two  poems  of  "  Locksley  Hall "  and 
"  Ulysses,"  accompanied  by  a  letter  from  himself,  in 
which  he  gave  his  own  opinion,  to  the  effect  that  if  the 
pension  were  merely  to  be  bestowed  as  a  charitable  gift, 
Sheridan  Knowles,  infirm  and  poor,  and  past  his  prime, 
was  the  proper  recipient  of  it ;  but  that  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  were  to  be  bestowed  in  the  interests  of  English 
literature  and  of  the  nation  at  large,  then,  beyond  all 
question,  it  should  be  given  to  Alfred  Tennyson,  in 
order  that  his  splendid  faculties  might  not  be  diverted 
from  their  proper  use  by  the  sordid  anxieties  of  a 
struggle  for  existence.  Peel  took  the  public  view  of 
the  question,  and  bestowed  the  pension  upon  Tennyson, 
though  it  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  before  very  long 
he  was  enabled  to  confer  a  pension  of  the  same  amount 
upon  Sheridan  Knowles.  The  part  which  Milnes  had 
taken  in  this  and  similar  transactions  will  explain  how 
it  was  that  he  received  such  a  letter  as  the  following  :— 

W.  S.  Landor  to  R.  M.  M. 

Bath,  April  4M,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Doubtless  you  have  heard  of  poor 
Southey's  death — a  thing  desirable  to  himself,  if,  indeed,  he  had 
any  consciousness — desirable,  too,  although  sorrowful,  to  his 


298  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

friends.  His  widow  I  have  never  seen,  but  she  regularly  sent 
me  accounts  of  him  during  all  his  illness.  Before  she  married 
him  she  was  well  aware  into  what  a  state  he  was  hastening,  and 
she  married  him  because  she  felt  certain  that  no  other  would 
take  the  same  care  of  him  as  she  would.  What  saint  or  martyr 
ever  reached  this  sublimity  of  self-devotion?  It  is  only  now 
that  I  am  informed  to  a  certainty  of  her  losing  one-half  of  her 
small  income  by  her  marriage.  His  "  Life  of  Dr.  Bell  "•  would 
have  brought  him  a  thousand  pounds — quite  sufficient  to  replace 
the  loss  by  an  annuity.  A  few  weeks  darkened  and  intercepted 
this  view  totally ;  but  is  it  possible  that  an  administration  which 
he  so  zealously  and  efficiently  supported  will  forget  his  services  ? 
I  have  heard  that  a  seat  in  Parliament  and  a  baronetcy  once 
were  offered  to  him.  When  we  consider  what  worthless  men 
have  been  gratified  with  both,  there  is  no  great  virtue  in  his 
refusal.  But  his  widow  is  worn  out  with  watching  and  anxiety, 
and  his  slender  fortune  is  much  diminished  by  his  long  malady. 
She  herself,  as  you  know,  has  written  admirable  things.  There 
is  one  chapter  on  "  Churchyards/'  which  the  united  faculties  of 
Sterne  and  Addison  would  scarcely  have  produced.  However, 
not  her  merits,  but  his,  call  upon  the  nation  for  some  testimonial 
— a  very  small  pension  for  a  very  few  years  (I  fear  I  am  over- 
rating its  duration) — would  exonerate  the  country  from  its  debt 
of  honour,  and  save  from  destitution  the  widow  of  that  man  who 
in  our  times  has  done  it  the  most  honour.  Pray,  my  dear 
Milnes,  exert  your  great  and  noble  faculties  on  behalf  of  a  man 
whose  principles  and  pursuits  were  the  same  as  yours — a  man 
who  defended  with  more  vigour  and  consistency  than  any  other 
the  laws  and  religion  of  his  country.  Do  not  let  my  application 
be  injurious  to  him.  If  the  Whigs  were  in  power  I  could  make 
it  to  none  of  them,  for  Southey  was  their  adversary,  and  I  for 
my  part  was  resolved  to  owe  them  nothing.  I  never  gave  them 
a  vote,  and  never  influenced  one  in  their  favour.  If  you  cannot 
obtain  for  the  widow  of  the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  man  in 
England  what  will  defend  her  from  poverty,  I  swear  to  you  that 
I,  who  am  obliged  to  live  on  a  tenth  of  my  income,  will  offer  her 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  299 

the  fifth.     You  see  to  what  an  extent  the  Tories  have  the  power 
of  fining  me  for  my  misdeeds. 

Believe  me,  dear  Milnes, 

Sincerely  yours,  W.  S.  LANDOR. 

This  letter  was  addressed  to  Milnes  before  his  return 
from  Egypt,  and  when  he  received  it  in  London  he  found 
that  the  application  had  already  been  made  to  the  Prime 
Minister  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Southey,  and  that  it  had 
failed.  He  offered,  however,  to  renew  the  attempt  if 
Landor  thought  it  desirable. 

W.  8.  Landor  to  R.  M.  M. 

DEAR  MILNES, — I  was  not  aware  of  your  being  in  Egypt 
when  I  wrote  to  you.  Peel  is  an  unlikely  man  to  change  a 
resolution  when  nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  it  beside  the  esteem 
of  honest  men.  Pray  do  not  try  him  again.  Southey  was  only 
the  best  man  and  the  best  writer  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived, 
and  the  strongest  support  of  Peel's  administration  ;  but  Southey 
is  dead,  and  no  edifice  can  stand  on  a  dead  body.  He  can  work 
no  more  for  Church  or  kingdom :  they  owe  him  large  wages, 
but,  as  nobody  demands  them,  nobody  will  pay  them. 

Midst  all  sorts  of  blunders,  political  and  military,  what 
think  you  of  Napier  in  India  ?  What  think  you  of  this  elephant 
in  the  midst  of  jackals  and  monkeys  ?  Only  one  battle  since 
the  creation  ever  equalled  his — that  of  Poictiers  ;  for  Clive,  the 
most  wonderful  of  our  military  men,  fought  against  poor 
soldiers — Napier  against  men  who  baffled  Alexander  himself — 
the  bravest  men  upon  earth,  excepting  ours.  They  will  not  make 
him  a  duke ;  perhaps  they  will  not  make  him  what  they  made 
such  rapscallions  as  Abinger,  &c.,  &c.,  &c.  Were  I  Napier,  and 
they  offered  me  a  mere  barony,  I  would  fringe  my  glove  with 
gold  lace,  and  slap  their  muzzles  till  they  bled.  This  is  the  man 
to  make  Governor  of  India  and  Duke  of  Hyderabad.  .  .  . 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

W.  S.  LANDOR. 


300  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

JR.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

26,  Pall  Mall,  June  30,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  MACCARTHY, — There  has  been  nothing  eventful 
in  this  month  to  write  about,  but  you  will  be  glad  of  a  letter  for 
its  own  sake.  We  are  shivering  through  the  summer  as  well  as 
we  can,  and  this  will  probably  find  you  at  your  hottest.  To  me, 
with  the  sensation  of  Egyptian  light  and  warmth  still  on  me,  this 
continual  chill  and  damp  is  absolutely  pain,  and  makes  Fleet  Ditch 
of  the  stream  of  my  intellect.  There  are,  however,  certain  moral 
heats  in  the  atmosphere— Repeal  in  Ireland  and  Anti-Puseyism  at 
Oxford.  Colvile  has  written  a  little  pamphlet  he  may  probably 
send  you  on  the  analogy  of  the  cries  of  the  Jansenists  and  the 
Puseyites — clever  enough,  but  rather  stilted.  The  real  meaning 
of  silencing  Pusey  for  two  years  is  that  Oxford  found  itself  in 
an  odd  position  towards  the  Government,  which  has  declared 
itself  as  decidedly  anti-Puseyite,  and  feared  not  to  get  its  fair 
share  of  patronage  if  it  went  on  in  any  identification  with 
Puseyism.  I  and  other  friends  of  Pusey  think  he  would  do  best 
to  take  the  censure  quietly,  and  not  publish  his  accused  sermon, 
any  appeal  ad  populum  being  entirely  at  variance  with  Pusey's 
frequent  preachments  about  passive  obedience  ;  but  he  will  most 
probably  print  it.  The  "  awkward  squad  "  of  Puseyism,  on  the 
other  hand,  have  been  disgracing  themselves  by  hitting  at 
Everett  while  taking  his  degree,  because  he  had  been  an  Unit- 
arian minister.  The  last  Sydney  Smith  is,  "  that  he  must 
believe  in  apostolic  succession,  there  being  no  other  way  of 
accounting  for  the  descent  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  from  Judas 
Iscariot/'  O'Connell,  poet  as  he  is,  believes  that  he  can  frighten 
us  into  Repeal  by  his  gigantic  meetings.  He  does  not  intend 
to  come  to  blows :  blows,  however,  may  come  in  spite  of  him, 
but  I  hope  not.  I  have  mooted  once  more  in  the  House  of 
Commons  the  subject  of  the  payment  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  Ireland  (which  D'Orsay  says  is  "  impayable  ") ,  and  I 
find  a  very  great  feeling  on  the  question  generally  to  prevail  in 
the  House.  The  real  difficulty  will  be  with  the  country,  and 
especially  the  Dissenters,  who  are  so  cocky  at  having  beat  the 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  301 

Government  on  the  education  measures  that  they  think  they 
have  everything  in  their  own  hands.  John  Manners  has  spoken 
in  favour  of  an  embassy  to  Rome,  and  I  do  not  believe  Peel  to  be 
unfavourable  to  it.  The  great  lion  of  the  month  is  the  King  of 
Hanover,  who  goes  about  in  an  unwonted  state  of  popularity — 
that  is  to  say,  generally  unhissed.  Brougham  has  struck  up  an 
intimate  friendship  with  him,  having  insulted  him  all  his  life 
in  both  Houses.  Lord  Grey  is  dying,  Lord  Carlisle  failing 
fast.  The  Lords  will  soon  get  the  best  disposable  talent  of  the 
country,  and  there  must  then  be  an  opening  in  the  Commons  of 
some  width.  I  have  seen  your  young  friend,  and  thought  him 
remarkably  pleasant  in  his  manner.  I  am  sorry  that  I  can  be  of 
so  little  use  to  him,  but  I  will  keep  him  in  my  eye.  We  have 
had  Dr.  Howe,  of  Laura  Bridgman  notoriety,  here.  He  told  me 
not  of  one,  but  of  many  cases  he  had  seen  of  persons  being  blind 
seeing  with  the  mesmeric  sense.  I  wish  you  would  see  whether 
you  have  any  clairvoyants  in  Turk's  Island.  .  .  . 

Yours  always, 

R.    M.    MlLNES. 

Milnes'  proposal  for  the  endowment  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Ireland  was  part  of  that  "  levelling-up " 
policy  of  which  he  was  for  many  years  the  advocate. 
It  had  its  friends  and  adherents  in  the  House  of 
Commons  as  well  as  in  the  country,  but  it  was  not 
destined  to  succeed. 

Connop  Thirl  wall,  now  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  kept 
up  his  correspondence  with  his  old  friend.  * 

Bishop  of  St.  David's  to  R.  M.  M. 

Abergwili,  July  3rd,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  am  very  glad  that  you  adhere  to  your 
purpose  of  coming  to  me  this  year.  You  have,  at  all  events,  a 
better  chance  of  finding  my  house  standing  and  me  in  it  than 
you  would  have  if  you  postponed  your  visit.  Hitherto  I  have 


302  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

only  been  a  spectator  of  our  late  war.*  If  I  am  destined  to 
take  any  other  part  in  it,  I  can  only  expect  that  it  will  be  that 
of  sufferer.  It  is  a  melancholy  change  to  find  that  we  are  to  be 
continually  under  military  protection.  I  saw  your  well-meant 
attempt,  which  earned  you  the  cordial  approbation  of  the  Morning 
Chronicle.  I  wish  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  clergy  could  be 
endowed,  for  then  it  might  be  hoped  that  they  would  cease  to 
conspire  against  England  ;  but  I  am  afraid,  if  such  a  thing  was 
ever  practicable,  it  would  now  be  too  late.  The  unanimity  of 
the  English  Parliament  in  favour  of  such  a  measure  would  be 
only  an  additional  objection  with  the  repealing  priesthood. 
Besides,  they  have  now  hopes  of  a  perhaps  equal  advantage 
obtained  in  a  way  more  congenial  to  their  feelings,  as  well  as 
more  consistent  with  the  preservation  of  their  influence.  If  I 
did  not  know  the  strength  of  Anglo- Catholic  faith,  I  should 
have 'been  surprised  at  the  confidence  which  Lord  John  Manners 
expressed  in  the  purity  of  O'ConnelFs  intentions.  I  have  asked 
Carlyle  to  come  and  see  me  after  next  Wednesday  week,  the 
llth.  I  wish  you  could  have  been  here  with  him.  I  have  very 
little  doubt  that  the  people  here  (who  took  Milman  for  Reginald 
Heber)  will  believe  Carlyle  to  be  the  celebrated  atheist,  an 
opinion  which  he  will  probably  confirm  by  his  demeanour. 
Could  you  contrive  to  get  Spedding  to  join  him  ? 

Yours  ever, 
C.  ST.  DAVID'S. 

Bishop  of  St.  David's  to  R.  M.  M. 

Abergwili,  Z\st  July,  1843. 

DfeAR  MILNES, — Carlyle  has  been,  seen,  and  gone  this 
morning.  He  rolled  away  with  the  mail  to  Gloucester,  where, 
and  at  Worcester,  he  is  going  to  look  for  vestiges  of  Cromwell, 
and  so  to  proceed  to  Liverpool,  and  thence  to  Snowdon,  or 
whithersoever  else  the  destinies  and  possibilities  may  convey 
him.  He  stayed  here  3  days,  on  one  of  which  he  enjoyed  the 

*  Wales    was   at  this  time  in  a  very  disturbed  state,  owing  to  the 
Rebecca  riots. 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  S03 

appropriate  felicity  of  meeting  the  Judge  of  Assize,  lawyers,, 
justices  of  the  peace,  peace-preserving  warriors,  and  a  host  of 
equally  congenial  people.  Otherwise  matters  passed  off  appar- 
ently very  much  to  his  satisfaction.  I  mounted  him  upon  a 
high  strong  horse,  and  we  scoured  the  country  together,  he 
with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth  and  arrayed  in  a  "gray  savagery 
of  three  sacks  with  a  hem  ! "  expressing  much  compassion  for 
all  mankind,  but  particularly  for  the  poor  inarticulate  little 
Welsh  creatures  who  could  only  smile  when  he  asked  them 
the  way.  The  sight  of  the  gates  and  houses  lately  demolished 
by  Rebecca  did  not  appear  to  distress  him  in  the  least.  As 
to  yourself,  come  by.  all  means  in  September  rather  than  in 
October,  that  you  may  see  the  country  still  green,  and  the 
garden  in  flowers;  but,  whatever  you  do,  avoid  the  last  week 
in  September,  that  you  may  not  be  taken  for  a  candidate  for 
orders  (my  butler  described  Cavlyle  to  me  as  Mr.  Macaulay). 
.  .  .  I  think  the  Government  has  some  right  to  be  out 
of  humour  with  you.  Out  of  mere  hankering  after  popularity 
you  make  common  cause  against  it  with  people  who  would 
as  willingly  endow  the  Church  of  Buddha,  or  the  fetish  of 
Ashantee,  as  you  would  be  reluctant  to  allow  a  penny  to  the 
Presbyterians  if  they  were  999  in  every  1,000  in  Ireland. 

Yours  ever, 

C.  ST.  DAVID'S. 

I  cannot  let  this  packet  go  [writes  Charles  Sumner,  Aug.  1st, 
1843]  without  thanking  you  earnestly  for  your  most  nattering 
kindness  to  my  friends — the  Howes.  He  wrote  heartily  of 
your  hospitality,  and  of  a  breakfast  where  he  was  much  pleased 
with  Charles  Buller.  He  cannot  forget  your  breakfasts.  My 
friend  Longfellow  is  a  most  happy  married  man.  Miss 
Appleton  is  his  beautiful  wife.  Have  you  seen  his  Spanish 
Student,  a  play  ? 

The  friendship  of  Buller  and  Milnes  did  not  diminish 
as  time  passed,  and  the  former  was  a  constant  guest  at 
the  breakfast  table  at  26,  Pall  Mall.  He  did  not  spare 


304  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

the  eccentricities  of  his  friend,  but  Milnes  liked  him 
none  the  less  because  at  times  he  sharpened  his  fine  wit 
at  his  expense.  "  I  often  think  how  puzzled  your 
Maker  must  be  to  account  for  your  conduct,"  was  one  of 
Buller's  remarks  which  Milnes  has  noted  in  his  common- 
place-book. Another  which  deserves  to  be  quoted — not 
for  any  personal  application,  but  because  of  the  insight 
which  it  affords  into  the  English  character,  was  Buller's 
allusion  to  the  "  high  sense  of  personal  honour,  and  the 
low  feeling  of  public  duty,  which,  distinguishes  our 
political  men  and  the  English  aristocracy  in  general." 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy, 

September  12th,  1843. 

MY  DEAK  FRIEND, — I  have  sent  you  a  box  of  intellectual 
food  of  all  kinds,  and  which  I  hope  you  will  get  soon  after 
this  letter.  It  contains  Thirlwall's  "  Greece/'  and  G-.  Sand's 
"  Consuelo,"  Mill's  "  Logic/'  and  an  Eton  Atlas,  plus  sermons 
and  poems — in  fact,  everything  you  ask  for,  and  everything  I 
could  lay  my  hand  on,  and  the  chinks  are  filled  up  with  Debats 
and  old  reviews.  ...  I  earnestly  hope  there  will  be  no 
mistake  about  it ;  but  since  I  have  lost  all  my  carpets  and  pipes 
and  rugs,  which  I  shipped  from  Smyrna  and  have  not  since  been 
heard  of,  I  hardly  believe  anything  can  cross  the  sea  securely. 
I  hope  you  will  like  "  Consuelo "  very  much.  I  think  it  first- 
rate.  I  am  at  this  moment  with  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's 
near  Carmarthen,  and  shall  be  about  in  Wales  and  Cornwall  till 
the  end  of  October,  then  to  Fryston  till  Parliament  meets. 
My  sister  is  in  Scotland,  and  well.  This  country  is  on  the 
brink  of  becoming  as  bad  as  Ireland.  The  serious  fun  of 
breaking  the  turnpike  gates  has  ended  in  fire  and  bloodshed. 
People  are  shot  at  most  nights,  and  whatever  magistrate  makes 
himself  offensive  to  the  Rebeccaites  has  his  farms  burnt. 
There  is  real  severe  poverty  at  the  bottom  of  the  affair,  and,  I 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  305 

should  fear,  not  much  sympathy  for  the  poor  on  the  part  of  the 
squireens,  who  seem  to  rule  the  land.  I  should  not  be  surprised 
if  some  districts  had  to  be  put  under  martial  law  during  the 
winter,  for  under  the  present  system  the  marauders  elude  police 
and  military.  No  one  will  inform,  no  one  will  resist,  and,  more 
than  all,  no  juries  will  convict.  Ireland  pauses  during-  the 
harvest.  It  is  always  a  perilous  thing  for  O'Connell  to  take  a 
fresh  step,  and  this  extra  Parliament  will  be  a  hard  one  to 
manage.  When  I  was  at  Neuilly  last  year,  I  asked  Louis 
Philippe  whether  he  had  ever  thought  of  inviting  our  Queen  to 
France.  He  seemed  pleased  with  the  notion,  and  put  many 
questions  as  to  the  feasibility  of  it,  and  lo !  the  end  of  my 
suggestion — she  has  been  there.  The  visit  seems  to  have  gone 
off  admirably,  and  the  anti-Anglican  party  quite  taken  aback. 
The  articles  of  the  Opposition  papers  about  it  are  charming,  the 
National  especially  asserting  that  Victoria's  chief  object  is  to 
wheedle  the  old  king  into  a  commercial  treaty  to  aggrandise 
England  and  ruin  France.  I  have  been  much  shocked  by  the 
tragedy  of  a  clever,  amiable  young  artist,  who  travelled  in  Egypt 
with  Sir  T.  Phillips  of  Newport  and  myself,  going  mad  and 
murdering  his  father.  The  poor  fellow  got  to  France,  but,  I 
see,  has  just  been  taken  up  in  the  act  of  murdering  some  one 
else.  A  strange  world  we  live  in !  I .  saw  Bunsen  in  the 
country  a  week  or  two  ago.  He  is  busyissimo  with 
"  ^gyptiaca,"  two  volumes  of  which  are  all  but  published. 
He  knocks  over  the  Jewish  history  implacably ;  makes  Moses 
the  father  of  modern  history,  and  the  ancient  history  before 
his  time  to  fill  up  considerably  more  than  six  thousand  years. 
Abraham  ceases  to  be  a  person,  and  Moses  and  Joseph  turn 
out  to  be  the  same,  and  such  like  invasions  on  orthodoxy.  I 
should  think  even  his  diplomatic  character  will  not  save  him 
from  Anglican  excommunication.  I  would  have  sent  you 
Dr.  Pusey's  sermon,  but  that  it  is  hardly  worth  while.  It 
deserved  to  be  condemned  for  its  length,  and  if  the  sentence 
was  interpreted  in  this  way  it  might  do  good.  ... 

Yours  affectionately,         R.  M.  MILNES. 


306  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

Although  the  season  was  at  an  end,  and  Milnes,  as 
the  reader  has  seen,  was  out  of  town,  passing  the  recess 
in  visiting  his  friends  or  in  entertaining  guests  at 
Fryston,  he  did  not  lose  his  touch  with  the  literary 
society  of  London.  In  all  his  wide  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances there  was  no  one  to  whom  he  remained  more 
faithful  than  to  Mrs.  Procter,  the  wife  of  the  dis- 
tinguished poet  known  as  Barry  Cornwall.  Of  Mr. 
Procter's  place  in  literary  history  there  is  no  need  to 
speak.  He  and  his  wife  were  the  intimate  friends  of 
Thackeray,  Dickens,  John  Forster,  and  the  other  promi- 
nent figures  in  the  literary  world  of  that  period,  and  it 
was  inevitable  that  Milnes  should  be  brought  much  into 
contact  with  them.  Mrs.  Procter  outlived  her  husband 
and  her  gifted  daughter  Adelaide  for  many  years.  She 
outlived,  indeed,  most  of  her  contemporaries,  including 
Lord  Houghton;  but  so  long  as  Milnes  lived,  she  was 
one  of  his  dearest  friends  and  most  welcome  guests. 
The  letters  from  her  pen  which  I  shall  quote  from  time 
to  time  in  these  pages  will  not  only  furnish  interesting 
glimpses  of  the  literary  society  in  which  she  moved,  but 
incidentally  will  throw  light  upon  Milnes's  relations 
with  it. 

Mrs.  Procter  to  R.  M.  M. 
13,   Upper  Harley  Street,  9  Oct.,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — Many  thanks  for  your  note.  It 
is  very  kind  and  very  like  you  to  think  of  me  when  I  am  ill.  I 
am  really  very  poorly,  although  I  have  no  complaint.  I  am  so 
thin  that  my  shadow  can  never  be  less,  and  I  can  only  manage 
to  sit  up  for  a  few  hours  during  the  day.  I  am  going  into  the 
country,  and  mean  to  get  well  if  I  can.  It  makes  me  very 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  307 

happy  to  hear  of  your  merry  party.  There  is  no  real  enjoyment 
of  one's  friends'  company  equal  to  living  in  the  same  house  with 
them.  Emily  and  my  second  daughter  Agnes  leave  me  for 
Chambery  on  Saturday.  Of  Eliot  Warburton  I  hear  nothing. 
Thackeray  wrote  to  Forster  a  few  days  since,  and  says  that  he 
will  give  a  guinea  for  a  note  from  Mrs.  Procter.  This  is  the 
first  offer  that  has  been  made  for  any  literary  work  of  mine. 
Mr.  Kinglake  is  in  Switzerland,  reading  Rousseau.  I  saw 
Carlyle  some  time  since — indeed,  the  day  after  his  return  home. 
He  was,  as  usual,  very  like  himself,  and  totally  unlike  any  other 
two-legged  animal.  To  speak  with  him  is  like  opening  some 
rare  and  rich  book.  One  is  the  better  for  it  for  some  days.  His 
society  is  a  fine  antidote  against  London  life,  which  you  tell  me 
makes  all  people  alike.  This  I  deny.  You  are  exactly  what  you 
were  when  I  first  knew  you.  Believe  me,  that  what  is  real 
remains,  and  that  fifty  years  of  town  life  will  do  you  no  harm. 
I  am  sadly  in  want  of  books ;  tell  me  of  something  to  read,  or 
never  mind  that  if  you  will  only  write  to  me  again. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  B.  PROCTER. 


Mrs.  Procter  to  R.  M.  M. 

"  Star  and  Garter,"  Richmond,  Oct.  llth,  1843. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — I  am  a  complete  convert  to  the 
saying  that  there  is  good  in  everything.      I  perceive  the  advan- 
tages of  illness  when  you  are  so  good  as  to  write  to  me.    ...    I 

rejoice  that  was  black-balled.     The  nonsense  he  talked 

one  day  alone  at  Lady  Gal  way's  about  Addison  ought  to  condemn 
him.  He  will  be  a  bishop;  his  cat-like  creeping  qualities 
will  secure  the  mitre  ;  besides,  his  "  sweet  wife/'  whom  every  one 
praises,  will  help  him  on.  Did  you  ever  see  his  book  about 
the  Jews,  which  was  suppressed  ?  This  speaks  well  for  it.  I 
return  your  portrait;  if  it  had  been  like,  I  should  certainly 
have  kept  it,  and  stood  the  chance  of  a  suit  at  law  for  its 
recovery.  I  read  of  you  at  Sir  John  Hanmer's,  where  Severn! 


308  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

also  was,  I  hear.  I  hope  that  amongst  "  Palm  Leaves "  you 
will  reprint  your  scattered  poems.  I  saw  only  yesterday  some 
lines  on  the  Railroad,  and  you  must  reprint  the  lines  on  Fanny 
Elssler.  The  only  way  to  treat  the  world  is  to  trample  on  it, 
and  then  it  respects  you.  Thank  you  again  and  again  for 
writing  to  me. 

Carlyle  was  at  this  time  in  town,  engrossed  in  the 
preparation  of  his  "  Cromwell." 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  Oct.  19^,  1843. 

DEAB  MILNES, — Wherever  on  the  face  of  this  earth  you  are, 
let  me  have  a  word  from  you  once  more.  The  sound  of  your 
voice  is  become  very  desirable,  even  the  picture  of  the  sound  of 
it.  Ah  me !  I  did  design  to  send  you  tidings  of  me  long  ago, 
but  I  have  been  unfortunate — a  weary,  forlorn,  most  sickly 
wanderer,  and  could  only  sit  silent,  looking  grimly  into  the 
Infinite  of  Black  and  Bright — an  inarticulate  Infinite  !  What 
"  can  be "  said  of  it  ?  You  remember  Cowper's  crow  perched 
on  the  top  of  the  weathercock,  and  therefrom  taking  "  general 
views."  He  looks  abroad,  too,  into  the  general  sum  of  things, 

"  And  says — what  says  he  ? — '  Caw  ! ' " 

I,  too,  might  have  written  "  Caw ! "  could  the  post  have 
carried  such  a  syllable  with  due  intonation,  but  it  would  not. 
Some  six  weeks  ago  I  returned  home,  the  weariest  man  on 
all  the  earth,  lay  down  on  sofas  to  read  and  other  inanity 
till  the  mud  whirlpools  should  subside  again,  which  now  at 
length,  thank  God,  they  begin  to  do;  and  so  once  more  I 
address  myself  to  the  Honourable  Member  for  Pomfret,  and 
say,  "  Oh,  Hon.  Mem.,  speak  to  me." 

To  ThirlwalFs  for  three  days  I  did  go.  Memorable  days  ! 
Saw  myself  kneeling  in  Laud's  chapel;  not  without  reflections, 
not  without  amusement;  found  the  Bishop  a  most  lovable 
man;  then  emerged  into  secular  life  again,  to  Cromwell's 
Battlefields,  bare  Welsh  wildernesses  and  innumerable  visions ; 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  309 

and  on  the  whole  will  give  you  no  history  of  myself  at  present, 
my  time  being  brief. 

For,  in  fact,  the  cause  or  excuse  for  my  writing  is  a  question 
I  have  to  put.  In  one  of  the  chaotic  volumes  I  am  reading 
there  turns  up  a  trace,  not  indubitable,  yet  of  some  promise,  that 
a  certain  Henry  Darley,  member  two  hundred  years  ago  for 
Malton,  "  took  notes  of  the  Long  Parliament."  Notes  of  the 
Long  Parliament — why,  it  were  almost  as  if  we  had  a  Times 
report  of  the  debate  between  Agamemnon  and  the  divine 
Achilles.  That  was  the  flower  of  all  Parliaments.  The  greatest 
that  ever  had  been,  and  also  the  greatest  that  ever  will  be  ;  the 
notes  of  it  are  worth  hunting  like  books  of  the  Sybil !  Well, 
this  Darley,  as  I  laboriously  make  out,  was  the  son  of  a  Sir 
Richard  Darley,  Kt.,  whose  place  was  Buttercrambe,  some  ten 
miles  or  so  to  the  north-east  of  York;  but  Sir  R.  had 
another  son,  Richard,  who  at  a  later  period  of  the  Parliament 
was  member  for  Northallerton.  He  himself  had  "suffered 
losses  "  for  the  Covenant's  sake,  and  he  at  the  end  of  the  war 
got  £5,000  allowed  him  for  compensation  of  the  same.  This 
is  all  I  can  dig  out  as  yet  that  has  essential  reference  to  the 
Darleys.  Now  the  question  is,  Do  you  know  who  at  present 
holds  that  same  Manor  of  Buttercramle  ?  Can  you  ask  him  if 
he  got  it,  by  descent  or  otherwise,  from  the  Darleys ;  and,  above 
all,  what  in  heaven's  name  has  become  of  the  Darley  papers  ? 
I  really  wish  you  would  make  a  little  inquiry  about  this  affair. 
It  strikes  me  you  may  fall  in  with  some  Yorkshire  antiquary, 
failing  him  of  Buttercrambe,  who  could  throw  light  on  it,  not 
without  advantage,  for,  as  I  say,  the  Long  Parliament  is  a  for 
ever  memorable  one.  Let  me  add,  however,  that  I  have  another 
trace  of  Long  Parliament  notes,  and  that  this  Darley  one  is  not 
an  indubitable,  but  only  a  high  or  almost  highest  probability. 
And  so,  my  good  friend,  adieu  again.  One  never  meets  but  to 
part ;  it  is  the  law  of  living  here  below,  and  true  good  souls  are 
wrapt  in  such  swathings  and  casings,  each  in  his  own  wrappage 
up  to  the  very  eyes,  and  cannot  kiss  and  embrace  with  souls ! 
God  pity  us  1 

T.  CARLYLE. 


310  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

At  the  very  time  when  Carlyle  addressed  this  letter 
to  Milnes,  the  latter  was  thinking  seriously — not  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  but  of  his  own  position  in  the  Par- 
liament of  the  day.  He  had  heen  doubly  disappointed 
in  his  career  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Knowing  so 
much  as  he  did  of  foreign  affairs,  and  feeling  a  just 
confidence  in  his  own  powers — confidence  which  was 
certainly  never  overweening — he  had  felt  it  as  a  bitter 
disappointment  when  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  forming  his 
Administration,  failed  to  offer  him  the  post  of  Under 
Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs — the  one  office  which  he 
coveted.  .Peel,  it  should  be  said,  was  on  terms  of  warm 
friendship  with  him,  and  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  his 
talents  as  a  poet  and  a  writer,  but,  as  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  it  was  this  very  fact  which  stood  in  the 
way  of  Milnes's  political  advancement.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
could  never  believe  that  a  man  of  letters  was  likely  to 
succeed  as  a  man  of  affairs.  The  two  classes,  in  his 
opinion,  stood  apart,  divided  the  one  from  the  other  by 
an  impassable  gulf.  Whilst  therefore  he  appreciated  not 
only  all  that  was  bright  and  lovable  in  the  character  of 
Milnes,  but  his  undoubted  abilities,  and  whilst  he  was 
quite  ready  to  profit  by  his  peculiar  knowledge  of 
foreign  affairs,  his  intimacies  with  the  leading  statesmen 
of  France  and  other  countries,  he  apparently  never  so 
much  as  thought  of  admitting  him  to  his  Administra- 
tion. This  was  the  first  and  perhaps  the  keenest  disap- 
pointment of  Milnes  in  his  Parliamentary  career;  but 
hardly  less  severe  was  the  disappointment  occasioned 
by  the  fact  that,  in  pursuing  a  career  of  honourable 


JOURNEY    TO    THE    EAST.  311 

independence,  and  in  speaking  his  own  opinions  and 
well-matured  sentiments  on  the  public  questions  of  the 
day,  he  should  fail  not  merely  to  win  the  applause  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  even  to  secure  the  approbation 
of  his  own  constituents.  It  was  about  this  time  that 
he  received  a  memorial,  signed  by  many  of  the  most 
influential  of  his  supporters  at  Pontefract,  dissenting  in 
strong  though  respectful  language  from  his  proposals 
for  the  endowment  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland. 

With  another  section  of  the  same  party  he  had  been 
brought  into  collision  by  his  votes  and  speeches  on  the 
Factory  Bills,  so  that  he  had  some  reason  for  the  dis- 
couragement which  he  unquestionably  felt,  and  his 
desire  to  quit  Parliament  and  find  a  more  congenial 
sphere  of  work  was  by  no  means  surprising.  He 
communicated  with  Mr.  Gladstone  on  the  subject. 

R.  M.  M.  to  W.  E.   Gladstone. 

Private.  Carclow,  Penryn,  Oct.  20^,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE, — I  could  not  come  and  invade  your 
Scottish  leisure,  but  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  give  me  a  few- 
moments  out  of  your  busier  time.  I  am  anxious  for  your  advice 
on  a  matter  of  some  importance  to  myself,  though  probably  of 
none  to  anyone  else.  I  see  Henry  Bulwer  is  going  to  Spain, . 
aud  I  am  thinking  of  applying  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  allow  me 
to  occupy  his  late  post  of  Secretary  of  Legation  at  Paris.  I  am 
inclined  to  do  this  for  the  direct  reison  that  I  believe  such  an 
office  would  suit  my  capacities,  and  that  I  have  been  in  some 
degree  fitted  for  it  by  a  very  long  and  varied  residence  on  the 
Continent  I  have  also  given  more  attention  to  Foreign  Affairs 
than  is  usual  with  young  Englishmen,  and  I  heartily  coincide 
with  all  I  know  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the  present  Government. 
But  I  own  that  I  am  chiefly  guided  by  an  indirect  feeling  that 


312  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

my  present  situation  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  most  uncom- 
fortable, I  may  say  painful,  and  yet  I  am  unwilling  to 
altogether  abandon  public  life.  Constituted  as  I  am,  I  cannot 
take  Parliament  as  a  mere  amusement,  or  even  as  one  of  many 
occupations,  and  therefore  I  am  always  in  the  dilemma  either  of 
officiously  obtruding  my  support  on  a  Government  (thank  God) 
too  strong  to  want  it,  or  of  following  out  an  independent  line 
of  action.  The  former  position  I  feel  to  be  almost  ridiculous, 
and  the  latter  brings  me  into  full  conflict  of  sentiment.  My 
sense  of  public  duty  and  my  loyalty  to  (I  will  not  say  affection 
for)  Sir  R.  Peel  will  not  permit  me  to  go  along  with  the 
energetic  and  enterprising  portion  of  my  own  party,  as  I  have 
frequently  shown  during  the  last  session,  so  that  I  am  necessarily 
stranded  on  uneasy  insignificance.  I  am  anxious  therefore  to 
escape  into  some  occupation  for  which  I  am  more  apt.  I  happen 
to  want  neither  position  nor  money,  but  I  do  desire  to  satisfy 
an  ambition  of  usefulness,  unless  I  am  to  retire  entirely  into  my 
books.  Do  you  think,  then,  that  such  an  application  as  I  have 
mentioned  would  be  a  proper  one  for  me  to  make,  and  that  my 
motives  in  making  it  would  be  fairly  judged  and  understood  ? 
I  can  promise  the  return  of  a  Conservative  at  Pomfret,  and  I 
can  reassume  my  seat  whenever  it  might  be  convenient  You 
will  not  grudge  me  a  line  of  counsel,  and  will  believe  me 

Your  faithful  and  obliged 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 


W.  K  Gladstone  to  R.  M.  M. 

Private.  Whitehall,  Oct.  23rd,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Your  letter  is  dated  the  20th,  but  it 
only  reached  me  this  morning.  I  sent  at  once  to  the  Foreign 
Office  in  order  to  learn  whether  the  post  at  Paris  is  still 
open ;  but  Mr.  Addington,  who  alone  is  in  town,  does  not 
know.  He  thinks,  however,  that  it  has  been  filled  up.  This, 
however,  even  if  it  be  true,  does  not  remove  the  occasion  for 
my  writing,  which  I  should  still  be  inclined  to  do,  even  if 


JOURNEY   TO    THE   EAST.  313 

I  had  learned  that  you   had   yourself   acted    without   hearing 
from  me. 

I  am  so  little  acquainted  either  with  our  foreign  policy 
or  with  diplomatic  life  that  I  should  give  but  a  very  bad 
opinion  upon  the  subject  of  any  man's  suitableness  for  any  post 
connected  with  them;  but  I  feel  confident  that  on  this  score 
your  proposal  cannot  be  open  to  objection.  It  appears,  how- 
ever, that  a  repulsive  rather  than  an  attractive  force  has  been 
that  which  is  mainly  operative  in  disposing  you  to  apply  for  the 
Secretaryship  of  Legation  at  Paris,  and  I  cannot  help  expressing 
the  hope  that  you  will  not  on  any  such  ground  carry  your  half- 
matured  intention  into  effect.  I  see  nothing  in  the  character 
of  your  Parliamentary  position  which  should  make  your  friends 
rejoice  in  your  being  removed  from  it.  "  Uneasy,"  in  my  opinion, 
must  be  the  position  of  every  member  of  Parliament  who  thinks 
independently  in  these  times,  or  in  any  that  are  likely  to  succeed 
them  ;  and  in  proportion  as  a  man's  course  of  thought  deviates 
from  the  ordinary  line,  his  seat  must  less  and  less  resemble  a 
bed  of  roses ;  but  I  see  nothing  of  insignificance  belonging  to 
you  in  or  out  of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  and  I  certainly  am  one 
of  those  who  think  that  in  point  of  significance  those  whom  you 
term  "  an  energetic  and  enterprising  portion  "  of  the  party  have 
gained  nothing  by  their  late  erratic  movements.  By  "  signifi- 
cance/' however,  I  mean,  not  the  notoriety  of  the  moment,  but 
permanent  weight  and  the  promise  of  power  to  be  useful.  And 
in  this  sentence  I  do  not  include  Lord  John  Manners'  philan- 
thropic efforts  :  these  appear  to  me  quite  distinct  from  the 
political  errors  of  himself  and  his  friends.  To  me,  certainly, 
it  seems  that  even  you  have  some  opinions  about  Irish  matters 
that  are  not  fit  for  practice ;  but  I  am  the  last  man  who  has 
a  right  to  make  this  a  charge,  or  to  urge  or  acquiesce  in  it  as  a 
reason  for  departure  from  Parliament.  I  should,  however,  say 
that,  in  some  points  of  view,  your  position  is  a  very  happy  one. 
Whereas  in  none,  as  I  conceive,  ought  it  to  prompt  you  to  desire 
a  change  of  the  nature  which  you  are  inclined  to  contemplate. 
It  would  be  very  like  a  surrender  of  Parliament  for  good,  and, 


314  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

much  as  you  are  qualified  to  appreciate  foreign  travel,  I  doubt 
whether  you  would  find  it  so  congenial  a  lot,  on  the  whole,  as 
that  which  you  now  possess  if  your  sphere  of  public  employment 
should  remove  you  altogether  from  English  life. 

As  to  the  question  with  which  you  wind  up,  I  can  see  no 
impropriety  in  your  application.  I  am  sure  your  motives  in 
making  it  would  be  rightly  construed ;  but  I  mistrust  it,  because 
it  is  avowedly  founded  in  the  main  on  a  dissatisfaction  which  I 
think  unjust. 

Believe  me 

Your  attached  friend, 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 


R.  M.  M.  to  W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Private.  Carclow,  Oct.  Z$th,  1843. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE, — I  am  grateful  for  your  friendly 
interest  and  counsel,  and  I  am  in  the  uncommon  case  of  desiring 
to  follow  the  advice  I  asked  for.  I  have  all  but  determined  to 
make  no  application  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the  subject  of  the 
diplomatic  appointment  in  question,  and  chiefly,  I  own,  because 
I  see  little  chance  of  getting  it.  It  is  so  probable  that  Mr. 
Wellesley  has  already  received  it  that  I  should  lose  whatever 
advantage  it  may  be  to  one  in  the  way  of  Parliamentary  inde- 
pendence to  have  never  applied,  directly  or  indirectly,  for  any 
Government  employment,  and  this  with  very  little  use  or  corre- 
sponding advantage.  I  cannot,  however,  conceal  from  myself 
that  your  letter  has  strongly  suggested  to  me  that  I  may  be 
performing,  almost  unconsciously,  a  humble  duty  in  remaining 
in  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  present  moment.  Although 
feeling,  as  I  before  expressed,  my  insignificance  very  acutely  in 
the  failure  of  my  efforts  to  turn  to  what  I  believe  good  purposes 
the  ambitious  activity  of  other  members  who  are  about  my  Par- 
liamentary contemporaries,  and  vexed  as  I  am  continually  at  my 
inability  to  divest  their  schemes  of  the  personal  animosity  which 
I  believe  to  be  most  ardent,  I  may,  perhaps,  be  exercising  some 


JOURNEY    TO    THE   EAST.  315 

infinitesimal  influence  for  good  which  I  ought  not  to  abandon  on 
mere  ground  of  personal  discontent.  I  have,  too,  little  right 
to  complain  of  isolation  in  opinion  when  I  find  that  the 
grievance  is  common  to  most  thoughtful  men  of  my  own 
generation,  and  when,  perchance,  even  you  suffer  from  it  as 
much  as  I  can  do.  .  . 

I  am 

Yours  always  obliged, 

R.    M.    MlLNES. 

Mr.  Gladstone  hailed  with  pleasure  Milnes's  determi- 
nation to  remain  for  the  present  in  Parliament,  though, 
in  accordance  with  a  request  from  the  latter,  he  spoke 
to  Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the  subject  of  his  friend's  desire 
for  a  release — at  all  events,  temporarily — from  Parlia- 
mentary life.  The  "  Young  England  "  party  was  now 
pushing  itself  to  the  front,  and  its  members  had  made 
overtures  to  Milnes  for  his  support ;  but  his  views  upon 
many  important  questions  were  widely  at  variance  with 
theirs,  whilst  there  was  nothing  in  the  position  of  the 
party  to  attract  his  personal  sympathy,  and,  as  the  reader 
of  the  foregoing  letter  has  seen,  he  held  resolutely  aloof 
from  the  combination. 

E.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

October  Nth,  184-3. 

.  .  .  .  I  have  been  staying  the  last  two  months  in  Wales 
and  Cornwall.  After  I  left  Thirl  wall's,  whence  I  wrote  to  you, 
I  went  to  see  Venables,  an  old  Cantab,  and  thence  to  James 
Stewart's,  or  rather  Lord  Bute's,  at  Cardiff.  They  keep  the 
Marquis's  house  there,  and  seem  on  the  whole  on  very  good 
terms  with  him.  It  is  said  he  always  talks  of  their  boy  as  his 
heir ;  but  as  he  is  little  above  forty  and  all  but  blind,  it  will  be 
a  great  act  of  self-denial  if  he  does  not  marry  again— indeed,  much 


316  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

greater  than  a  Marquis  is  likely  to  be  capable  of  .... 
Nothing  new  in  the  way  of  books,  except  an  article  on  Puseyism 
in  one  of  the  Reviews,  attributed  to  Gladstone.  I  should  think 
Peel  must  wish  to  shy  the  book  at  his  head.  *  The  great 
minister  has  been  just  presiding  at  an  agricultural  dinner  to  his 
tenants,  where  he  said  that  if  any  of  them  would  find  a  bull  of 
great  merit  in  their  part  of  the  country,  he  would  purchase  it, 
totally  regardless  of  the  price,  for  the  benefit  of  his  tenants.  He 
also  averred  that  if  any  one  of  his  tenants-at-will  applied  to  him 
for  a  lease,  "  he  should  hesitate  long,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  avow, 
before  he  refused  the  application."  There  is  a  general  notion 
that  the  prosecution  of  O'Connell  will  fail ;  the  informations  are 
most  meagre,  and  the  prosecutor,  the  Irish  Attorney-General, 
most  incompetent  Perhaps  Peel  after  all  does  not  care  much 
about  the  success  of  the  affair,  as  after  such  an  issue  he  can 
either  say,  "  I  have  tried  the  ordinary  course  of  law ;  this  has 
failed,  therefore  give  me  extraordinary  powers ; "  or,  "  I  have 
done  all  the  law  permits  in  the  way  of  coercion,  therefore 
nothing  remains  but  to  try  further  measures  of  concession,  such 
as  paying  the  priesthood,  increasing  the  franchise,"  &c.  I  have 
been  so  out  of  humour  with  politics  of  late  that  I  have  thought 
of  applying  for  a  diplomatic  post,  but  Gladstone  has  urged  me 
so  strongly  to  remain  in  Parliament  at  present,  that  I  mean  to 
try  another  Session ;  and  if  I  cannot  "  orienter  "  myself  a  little 
better  in  the  political  wilderness,  I  shall  try  and  get  out  of  it — at 
least,  for  a  time.  My  sister  has  just  returned  from  Scotland 
after  a  successful  tour,  and  is  pretty  well.  I  return  to  York- 
shire in  a  week,  to  remain  there  till  Parliament  meets,  except 
perhaps  a  jaunt  to  Ireland  about  the  time  of  the  great  Celt's 
trial.  I  think  I  met  the  Lady  B.  you  mention  on  the  hustings 
with  Father  Mathew,  whom  I  much  patronised  in  London.  He 

*  Lord  Honghton  used  to  tell  how  he  was  staying  at  Drayton  when 
Mr.  Gladstone's  famous  essay  on  Church  and  State  reached  the  hands  of 
Sir  Robert  Peel.  Peel  turned  over  the  pages  of  the  book  with  somewhat 
scornful  curiosity,  and  after  a  hasty  survey  of  its  contents  threw  the 
volume  on  the  floor,  exclaiming  as  he  did  so,  "  That  young  man  will  ruin 
his  fine  political  career  if  he  persists  in  writing  trash  like  this." 


JOURNEY   TO    THE   EAST.  317 

seemed  to  me  to  be  quite  the  stuff  avowed  saints  are  made  of — 
a  man  so  full  of  his  idea  that  it  overflows  on  all  around  him. 
God  bless  you. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R  M.  MILNES. 

Milnes  stayed  at  Bawtry  and  Fryston  during  the 
winter,  writing  an  article  on  Russia  for  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  and  completing  the  preparation  of  "  Palm 
Leaves." 

Writing  early  in  January  to  MacCarthy,  he  tells 
him  of  the  failure  of  the  O'Connell  trial,  and  adds — 

I  spent  last  Sunday  at  Oscott.  The  Bishop  (Wiseman) 
much  thinner,  and  looking  all  the  better  for  it  He  seemed  in 
excellent  spirits,  and  the  whole  affair  very  prosperous.  He  has 
got  a  capital  man  with  him,  quite  the  cream  of  converts  whom 
I  have  seen,  a  Dr.  Logan,  in  whom  he  appears  to  place  implicit 
confidence.  He  is  a  charming  companion,  and  quite  up  to  the 
great  question  of  our  time.  Delabarre  Bodenham  dined  with 
O'Connell  in  his  " dungeon"  last  week.  One  day  they  were 
twenty,  the  next  near  thirty,  and  had  a  magic  lantern  and  cards 
and  music  in  the  evening.  They  were  delighted  in  the  success 
of  the  French  at  Tangiers,  and  Mr.  Barrett  of  the  "  Pilot " 
called  out,  "  God  bless  the  French ;  there  are  20,000  Irish  ready 
for  them  whenever  they  choose/'  I  rather  think  of  six  weeks 
of  Berlin  this  winter,  to  rub  up  my  German  and  see  whether  the 
King  is  a  humbug. 


CHAPTER    VIH. 

POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY    LIFE. 

"  Palm  Leaves  " — Reviewing  Disraeli — Maynooth — "Wordsworth  and  Milnes — 
Letter  from  De  Tocqueville — Thomas  Campbell — Relations  of  England  and 
France — Disraeli  at  Fryston — His  Sketch  of  Milnes — Milnes  visits  Berlin — 
Fjxtracts  from  Commonplace  Book — Assists  Thomas  Hood — A  Political  Storm 
— Another  Disappointment. 

IT  was  not  until  the  winter  of  1844  that  Milnes  was 
able  to  pay  the  visit  to  Berlin  to  which  we  have  seen 
him  looking  forward.  The  spring  of  the  year  brought 
him  once  more  prominently  into  notice  in  his  character 
of  author  and  poet,  inasmuch  as  it  witnessed  the  appear- 
ance in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  his  article  upon  Custine 
and  the  publication  of  "  Palm  Leaves,"  in  which  are 
gathered  up  the  impressions  made  upon  his  mind  during 
his  sojourn  in  the  East.  The  article  on  Custine  excited 
considerable  attention,  and  the  editor  of  the  Edinburgh 
— Mr.  McVey  Napier — in  transmitting  to  the  author  a 
liberal  honorarium,  expressed  his  warm  appreciation 
both  of  its  style  and  of  its  substance.  As  for  "  Palm 
Leaves,"  it  was  hailed  with  delight  by  his  friends,  and 
though  it  was  not  destined  to  attain  the  popularity  of 
his  earlier  poems,  there  was  much  in  it  which  received 
the  commendation  of  the  critics,  and  which  deserved  to 
live.  The  spirit  of  the  book,  as  I  have  already  pointed 
out,  was  hardly  that  familiar  to  the  ordinary  English 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  319 

• 

reader  ;  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  on  the  copy  belong- 
ing to  Harriet  Martineau  that  eminent  woman  wrote 
upon  the  title-page  the  lines  I  have  already  quoted. 

Another  contribution  to  the  press  during  the  spring 
of  1844  was  an  article  on  the  famous  political  novel  of 
Mr.  Disraeli,  which  Milnes  contributed  to  Hood's  Maga- 
zine. The  reader  has  seen  that  between  Milnes  and 
the  "  Young  England "  school,  of  which  Mr.  Disraeli 
had  constituted  himself  the  literary  mouthpiece,  there 
was  a  distinct  antagonism.  In  early  days  Milnes  and 
some  of  his  college  associates  had  dreamt  of  a  "  Young 
England  "  of  another  type,  and  inspired  by  a  different 
man ;  and  he  had  never  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of 
those  who  were  anxious  that  he  should  now  cast  in  his  lot 
with  the  little  group  of  idealists  who  were  trying  to 
make  the  "  Young  England  "  party  a  reality  in  the  State. 
His  criticism  upon  "Coningsby  "  was  not,  therefore,  one 
of  unmixed  approval,  although  it  did  full  justice  to  the 
sincerity  of  its  author  and  the  excellence  of  the  inten- 
tions which  he  shared  with  his  political  associates. 

Among  those  who  read  it  with  appreciation  was  Miss 
Berry,  of  whose  house  Milnes  was  now  a  constant 
frequenter. 

Well,  dear  Real  England  [wrote  Miss  Berry],  you  owe  Mr. 
Disraeli  much  for  giving  you  such  an  opportunity  of  avowing 
and  leading  the  national  Libeial  ideas  of  government  and  of  our 
political  situation  which  you  have  so  well  expressed.  I  am  sorry 
you  cannot  give  me  an  opportunity  of  talking  over  this  with 
you  to-morrow.  .  .  .  But  I  could  not  so  long  delay  telling 
you  how  much  I  like  it,  and  how  I  wish  to  see  more  of  a  real 
England  in  her  real  tone  of  feeling. 


320  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

NOT  was  it  Miss  Berry  alone  who  approved  of  the 
article ;  a  more  important  person,  under  the  circum- 
stances— the  author  of  "  Coningsby  "  himself — was 
pleased  to  give  similar  expression  to  his  feelings. 

Mr.  Disraeli  to  R.  M.  M. 

Grosvenor  Gate,  June  2nd,  1844. 

DEAR  MILNES, — I  cannot  tell  you  how  I  regret  that  when 
you  called  at  Grosvenor  Gate  yesterday  we  had  not  read  "  The 
Few  Remarks,"  which  only  reached  me  last  night.  Had  I  done 
so,  I  would  have  thanked  you  for  one  of  those  criticisms  which 
honour  alike  the  critic  and  the  criticised,  and  we  could  have 
discussed  together  the  points  of  controversy,  assisted  by  Mrs. 
Disraeli,  who  has  several  puissant  arguments  for  you  in  store, 
though  she,  as  well  as  myself,  appreciates  comments  that  at  the 
same  time  indicate  the  thoughtful  mind,  the  cultivated  taste, 
and  the  refined  pen.  Thank  you  very  much. 

Ever  yours  faithfully, 

B.  DISRAELI. 

The  Session  this  year  was  an  uncomfortable  one  for 
men  who  had  opinions  of  their  own  on  such  questions 
as  those  of  the  relations  between  the  Government  and 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland.  Milnes,  who,  in  spite 
of  the  lukewarmness  of  his  friends  and  the  open  disap- 
probation of  his  constituents,  was  still  eager  to  press 
upon  Parliament  his  scheme  for  the  endowment  of  the 
Catholic  clergy,  was,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  a  warm 
supporter  of  Peel's  proposal  for  a  grant  to  Maynooth 
College,  a  course  on  his  part  which,  as  we  shall  see, 
brought  him  again  into  collision  with  some,  at  least,  of 
the  electors  of  Pomfret. 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  321 

I  have  never  voted  blindly  and  subserviently  with  the  Govern- 
ment [he  wrote  to  one  of  his  supporters,  who  happened  at  the 
time  to  be  Mayor  of  Pomfret]  ;  but  I  do  not  deny  that  the  fact 
of  this  Bill  (the  Maynooth  grant)  emanating  from  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  (who  opposed  Catholic  emanci- 
pation till  Ireland  was  on  the  brink  of  civil  war),  from  Lord 
Stanley  and  Sir  J.  Graham  (who  gave  up  office  rather  than 
touch  the  Protestant  Church  in  Ireland),  and  from  the  son  of 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  predisposed  me  in  its  favour,  especially 
when  coupled  with  the  certain  knowledge  that,  if  defeated  in  this 
measure,  Sir  Robert  Peel  would  abandon  office  to  a  party  pledged 
to  great  changes  in  the  Protestant  Establishment  in  Ireland. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  repeat  the  arguments  which  he 
urged  in  vindication  of  his  action  in  the  matter,  but  his 
closing  words  to  the  Mayor  of  Pomfret  may  fitly  find  a 
place  here : — 

The  whole  truth  of  the  matter  [he  wrote]  is  in  this  distinc- 
tion, that  this  and  similar  questions  must  be  regarded  from  an 
Irish,  not  an  English  point  of  view,  just  as  we  make  concessions 
and  regulations  in  our  colonies  which  we  would  not  do  at  home. 
Ireland  is  there,  and  we  cannot  get  rid  of  her  without  ruining 
the  Empire.  She  is  governed  by  Roman  Catholic  priests,  whom 
we  cannot  convert  and  must  not  persecute.  She  compels  us  to 
keep  up  an  immense  army  in  time  of  peace,  and  prevents  us  from 
going  safely  to  war.  I  have  voted  money  to  give  those  priests 
as  good  an  education  as  I  can  get  them  to  take,  and,  unless 
you  can  tell  me  some  better,  wiser,  and  cheaper  way  of  improving 
Ireland  and  its  government,  I  believe  I  have  done  right. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartJiy. 

Pall  Mall,  Feb.  29M,  1844. 

DEAR  FRIEND, —  ...  I  am  now  settled  in  town  for  the 
Session,  which  has  opened  very  strong  for  the  Government,  a 


322  THE  LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

nine  days'  debate  having  closed  with  a  majority  of  100,  and 
the  Opposition  unable  to  make  any  head  against  them.  It  was 
the  most  brilliant  debate  I  have  heard  iii  the  rfouse  of  Com- 
mons, and  satisfactory  on  higher  grounds.  No  single  Orange 
speech  ;  and  I  alluded  to  the  possibility  of  seeing  purple  stock- 
ings in  the  House  of  Lords  some  day  soon.  So  I  hope  we  may  get 
some  toleration  for  you  poor  Papists  at  last.  .  .  .  O'Connell 
excites  a  good  deal  of  interest  just  now.  He  was  partially 
cheered  as  he  entered  the  House  of  Commons,  has  had  a  most 
passionate  reception  at  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League  at  Covent 
Garden,  and  is  to  have  a  grand  dinner  on  the  12th.  He  looks 
worn  and  HI,  and  his  best  friends  speak  despondingly  of  him. 
He  made  an  excellent  gentlemanly  speech  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  but  with  little  animation.  The  "  base  bloody  "Whigs  " 
are  in  a  great  quandary  how  to  behave  towards  him,  having 
tried  to  convict  him  themselves  and  failed.  They  are  furious 
at  the  present  Government's  success,  but  at  the  same  time 
are  afraid  to  pledge  themselves  to  too  much  friendship  for  the 
future.  Colvile  is  not  looking  well — a  good  deal  thinner  than  he 
was.  .  .  .  Old  Rogers  lives,  and  goes  on  breakfasting,  but 
is  a  good  deal  estranged  from  me ;  I  rather  think  he  is  the  loser 
by  it.  I  have  a  little  volume  of  Oriental  poems  in  the  press 
called  "  Palm  Leaves  " ;  I  doubt  their  success,  and  am  not  sure 
of  their  merit.  I  find  impressions  require  so  much  more  working 
tip  with  me  than  they  used  to  do  in  the  fair  old  times  of  Italy 
and  Greece ;  and  though,  perhaps,  they  come  out  more  plastically 
correct,  I  am  conscious  that  they  are  less  true  and  genial ;  but  I 
write  better  and  easier  prose  (more  like  yours) ;  that,  perhaps,  is 
the  compensation.  .  .  .  You  may  have  got  from  America 
some  translations  of  Frederica  Bremer  from  the  Swedish.  They 
have  had  immense  success  here.  Prescott's  "  Mexico  "  has  also 
pleased  much.  What  think  you  of  "  Consuelo  "?  A  continua- 
tion, giving  Albert's  second  life,  is  nearly  ready.  God  bless 
you,  my  dear  friend.  Be  of  good  heart. 


POLITICAL   AND   LITERARY  LIFE.  323 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  March  YltJi,  1844. 

DEAR  MILNES, — There  came  last  night  a  second  copy  of  the 
"  Palm  Leaves/'  which  also,  by  a  kind  of  droit  d'aubaine,  may  I 
not  crave  your  leave  to  keep,  having  already  in  view  a  good  use 
for  it  ?  I  hope,  moreover,  you  have  sent  a  copy  to  Emerson, 
whom  intrinsically  and  extrinsically  it  will  much  gratify.  The 
way  to  him  is  by  one  Green  (or  the  successor  of  Green),  a  book- 
seller in  Newgate  Street.  One  of  my  copies  I  read  through 
after  tea,  which  feat  of  itself,  either  after  or  before  tea,  is  a  very 
surprising  one  for  any  kind  of  poetry  with  me  in  these  days. 
Truly,  I  feel  called  upon  to  say  that  I  like  this  volume  better 
than  any  of  your  others,  and  indeed  well ;  that  I  find  a  real  voice 
of  song  in  it,  breathings  of  genuine  mild  wisdom,  uttered 
musically  under  the  palm-trees  of  the  East  by  a  Western 
man.  You  recognise  my  friend  Mahomet,  and  say  and  sing 
things  audible  and  heart-affecting  concerning  him.  Thanks  for 
such  a  book  in  my  own  name  and  that  of  all. 

And  now,  recognising  Mahomet,  good  heavens !  .why  do  we 
not  set  about  emulating  him  ?  Life  with  us  is  not  a  dilettantism, 
any  more  than  it  was  with  him.  We  are  born  servants,  bound 
to  be  ready  with  blood  and  life,  to  what  he  called  Allah  :  we  too, 
every  soul  of  us.  One  of  the  things  I  like  in  this  book  is  the 
visible  increase  of  earnestness.  May  it  go  on  increasing !  On 
the  whole,  if  Young  England  would  altogether  fling  its  shovel- 
hat  into  the  lumber-room,  much  more  cast  its  purple  stockings 
to  the  nettles,  and,  honestly  recognising  what  was  dead,  and, 
leaving  the  dead  to  bury  that,  address  itself  frankly  to  the 
magnificent,  but  as  yet  chaotic  and  appalling,  Future,  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Past  and  Present,  telling  men  at  every  turn  that 
it  knew  and  saw  for  ever  clearly  the  body  of  the  Past  to  be  dead 
(and  even  to  be  damnable  if  it  pretended  still  to  be  alive  and  go 
about  in  a  galvanic  state),  what  achievements  might  not  Young 
England  perhaps  manage  for  us  !  Whatsoever  was  noble  and 
manful  among  us,  in  terrible  want  of  a  rallying-point  at  present, 
might  rally  then  and  march.  But  alas,  alas  !  Well,  I  wish 


324  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

you  every  felicity,  and  pray  that  the  end  of  idol  worship  (wood 
idols  and  logic  idols)  may  be  swift.  And  with  thanks  for  such 
graceful  melodies,  whispering  "  Palm  Leaves/'  and  many  other 

things,  am 

Ever  yours, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

Factory  legislation  shared  with  Maynooth  the  atten- 
tion of  the  country  during  the  Session. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartky. 

26,  Pall  Mall,  March  24^,  1844. 

DEAR  FRIEND, —  ....  We  have  had  some  curious 
political  workings  since  I  wrote  last.  Lord  Ashley,  in  his  pro- 
position to  limit  the  labour  of  women  and  young  people  under 
eighteen  in  the  factories  to  ten  hours  per  diem,  has  twice  beat 
the  Government,  who  persist  in  a  limitation  of  twelve  hours. 
This  question  is  convulsing  the  country,  and  dislocating  parties  in 
the  strangest  way.  We  Humanitarians  have  Lord  John  Russell, 
Lord  Howick,  Charles  Buller,  Sir  K  Inglis,  T.  Duncombe,  &c., 
with,  us ;  and  the  Government  have  all  the  pure  political  econo- 
mists, including  the  League.  The  final  row  is  deferred  till  aftor 
Easter,  when,  it  is  said,  the  Government  mean  to  make  it  a 
question  of  resignation.  I  hardly  see  how  they  can  do  this  on 
BO  very  special  a  matter,  but  time  will  show.  I  shall  oppose 
them  to  the  utmost ;  that  is  all  I  know.  ...  I  am  uncer- 
tain whether  I  go  to  Paris  or  not  at  Easter ;  it  is  hardly  worth 
while  for  a  fortnight,  but  I  should  like  to  hear  what  they  think 
of  my  review  of  Custine,  and  to  felicitate  M.  Guizot  on 
having  settled  himself  and  France  at  least  for  another  year. 
He  has  got  a  good  majority  on  his  Secret  Service  motion — I 
think,  56 ;  and  though  Louis  Philippe  has  been  snubbed  by  the 
return  to  the  Chambre  of  the  Legitimist  deputies  whom  he 
declared  to  be  fetris,  I  don't  think  Guizot  minds  it  much.  The 
Due  d'Angouleme  is  not  dead,  as  was  reported,  but  cannot  live 
long,  which  will  put  Henri  de  France  in  the  disagreeable  position 
of  being  Henri  V.,  or  nobody.  By-the-bye,  I  hear  that  Custine's 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY    LIFE.  325 

abuse  of  Russia  has  had  the  effect  of  restoring  him  to  society  in 
France,  and  that  now  he  is  visited  and  invited  by  everybody. 
What  a  curious  complication  of  moral  and  intellectual  valuation ! 
.  .  .  .  The  book  "  Palm  Leaves  "  is  selling  well. 

Milnes  did  not  go  to  Paris  at  Easter,  as  he  liad 
thought  of  doing.  He  explained  his  reason  for  not 
doing  so  in  a  letter  to  M.  Gruizot. 

K  M.  M.  to  M.  Guizot. 

26,  Pall  Mall,  April  UTi,  1844. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  find  myself  so  hampered  with  business, 
private  and  public,  that  I  have  no  hope  of  paying  you  a  Paschal 
visit,  and  thus  I  send  you,  what  I  meant  to  have  brought,  my 
article  (in  the  Edinfairgh  Review]  on  Custine,  which  I  should 
be  flattered  by  your  liking.  My  Eastern  book  you  will  read 
some  ten  years  hence,  when  you  are  "  defunctus  officio."  Since 
I  wrote  to  you,  we  have  had  the  agitation  of  the  Ten  Hours 
Bill ;  as  I  am  an  aide-de-camp  of  Ashley's,  I  am  probably  one- 
sided ;  but  I  own  I  much  regret  that  the  Government,  having 
gone  so  far  as  their  Bill  does  go,  did  not  advance  a  little  farther, 
and  take  the  ten  hours  for  women  and  young  persons.  .  .  . 
The  Government  will  probably  have  a  majority  after  Easter, 
wrung  from  the  House  by  the  threats  or  the  persuasions  common 
to  all  Governments ;  but  on  the  whole  they  will  no  doubt  suffer 
much  on  the  question  in  public  consideration.  One  of  the  best 
jokes  is  that  Ashley  is  to  form  an  Administration ;  but  whether 
it  will  last  ten  hours  or  twelve,  nobody  can  decide.  .  .  .  You 
have  got  Lord  Brougham  at  Paris ;  he  is  furious  about  the 
factory  system  and  our  interference.  It  is  curious  how  he  now 
takes  all  the  sides  opposed  to  popular  sympathy.  You  will  have 
seen  our  good  friends — the  Grotes;  he  is  going  to  give  us  a 
really  great  history.  I  do  not  like  to  take  the  liberty  of  sending 
my  Russian  article  to  the  King,  but  you  perhaps  might  mention 
it  to  him,  as  I  have  heard  he  has  interested  himself  a  good  deal 
about  the  book.  Macaulay's  article  on  Bare^re,  in  the  same 


326  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

number,  is  well  worth  reading1.  I  trust  your  King-  will  he  ahle 
to  come  here  at  least  before  the  Emperor  Nicholas ;  the  latter 
told  one  of  our  diplomates  that  he  would  come  here,  though 
with  a  single  aide-de-camp. 

The  State  Fancy  Ball  was  one  of  the  features  of  the 
season.  Milnes  went  to  it  dressed  as  Chaucer,  in  an 
attire  the  details  of  which  were  superintended  by 
Macready.  It  was  "  grave  and  simple  " — dark  green 
cloth,  amher  satin,  and  squirrel  fur  being  the  com- 
ponents of  it. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gaily  Knight  [he  wrote  to  his  aunt]  go  to 
the  ball  as  remains  of  Saracenic  architecture.  When  the 
Duchess  of  Sutherland  was  told  Lord  W.  was  to  be  her  partner 
for  the  quadrille,  she  said,  "  How  dull  it  will  be  for  him  to  be 
so  long  with  some  one  of  a  decent  character  !  " 

Wordsworth,  as  Mr.  Aubrey  de  Vere  has  told  us, 
having  heard  of  the  character  in  which  Milnes  meant  to 
appear  at  the  ball,  remarked,  "If  Monckton  Milnes 
goes  as  Chaucer,  the  father  of  English  poetry,  all  that  is 
left  for  me  is  to  go  as  Monckton  Milnes." 

Charles  Sumner  to  R.  M.  M. 

Boston,  May  1st,  1844. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Many  thanks  for  the  new  volume  of 
poems,  which  are  graceful  and  refined,  and  full  of  beautiful 
truth  and  sympathy.  Longfellow  has  the  copy  which  you  were 
good  enough  to  send  him,  but  I  have  not  seen  him  since  I  heard 
of  his  wife  reading  it  to  him.  I  like  much  your  gentle 
and  pleasant  dealing  with  Custine.  It  gave  repose  after  the 
clangour  of  Macaulay's  article.  It  seems  that  he  followed  you 
in  the  debate  on  Ireland — you  follow  him  in  the  Review.  My 
special  object  in  writing  now  is  to  ask  your  countenance  for 
the  publication  of  a  volume  of  your  poems  in  the  United 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  327 

States.  I  have  long  hoped  to  see  an  American  edition  of 
your  poems,  but  untoward  circumstances  have  interfered  till 
now ;  among  these  was  the  considerable  importation  of  English 
copies,  which  was  thought  to  have  drawn  off  part  of  the 
American  market.  The  same  publishers,  Ticknor  and  Co.,  who 
have  recently  brought  out  Barry  Cornwall,  now  propose  a 
selection  from  your  four  volumes.  .  .  .  Now,  my  dear 
Milnes,  if  you  take  interest  enough  in  this  reprint,,  pray  send 
me  a  list  of  the  pieces  which  you  would  prefer  to  see  in  a  col- 
lection of  one  or  two  volumes.  .  .  .  You  will  see  that 
Pennsylvania  has  at  last  resolved  to  tax  herself  to  find  the 
interest  already  accrued,  and  to  pay  interest  after  August  next. 
I  regret  very  much  that  Sydney  Smith  sold  out  at  40  per  cent. 
"  The  drab-coloured  men  of  Pennsylvania "  have  done  their 
duty,  but  why  have  they  been  so  dilatory  about  it  ? 
Ever  and  ever  yours, 

CHAKLES  SUMNEH. 


A.  de  Tocqiieville  to  R.  M.  M. 
(On  receiving  a  copy  of  "  Palm  Leaves/') 

Clairain  pres  Compiegne,  May  29^,  1844. 

It  would  be  unpardonable  on  my  part,  my  dear  Milnes,  not 
to  have  thanked  you  yet  for  what  you  sent  me,  if  since  then  I 
had  not  been  as  much  overwhelmed  with  work,  with  difficulties 
and  annoyances,  as  a  Prime  Minister — a  misfortune  from  which 
a  member  of  the  Opposition  ought,  in  all  justice,  to  be  free ! 
But  the  reason  thereof  is  that  I  have  been  made  a  Reporter  of 
the  Prison  Laws.  I  fancy  you  have  nothing  similar  in  your 
Parliamentary  machine.  The  Reporter  is,  in  a  measure,  a 
responsible  editor  of  the  law ;  all  criticisms  are  sent  to  him — he 
has  to  deal  with  these,  and  settle  all  points  of  opposition  and 
disagreement.  And  when  such  discussions  take  up  a  whole 
month,  as  they  did  in  this  case,  it  is  no  joke,  I  swear  to  you,  to 
be  a  Reporter. 

However,  here  I  am,  safely  out  of   the  fray,  and  with   a 


328  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

majority  of  a  hundred  voices — a  result  which  helps  me  to  forget 
and  forgive  all  bygones.  After  the  voting,  I  came  away  to  the 
country  for  a  little  relaxation,  where  I  have  at  last  found  time 
to  read  you.  You  know  that  what  is  most  difficult  to  under- 
stand in  a  language  that  is  not  one's  own,  is  poetry.  It  will, 
therefore,  be  but  poor  praise  if  I  say  that  I  think  your  "  Palm 
Leaves"  very  remarkable,  and  that  they  deserve  the  special 
attention,  not  only  of  those  who  like  beautiful  verses,  but  who 
look  on  poetry  as  the  true,  though  coloured,  reflex  of  real  objects. 
One  seems  to  be  inhaling  an  Oriental  atmosphere  in  reading 
you.  I  wanted  to  tell  you  of  this  impression,  as  I  think  that 
praise  in  itself.  Madame  de  Tocqueville,  who  is  much  better  able 
to  judge  than  myself,  shares  my  impression,  and  wishes  me  to 
tell  you  so. 

The  only  thing  is  that  you  appear  to  me,  like  Lamartine, 
to  have  returned  from  the  East  too  much  the  Mussulman.  I 
cannot  make  out  why  in  these  days  so  many  distinguished 
minds  evince  this  tendency.  For  my  part,  my  contact  with 
Islamism  (you  know  that  through  Algeria  we  are  brought  into 
daily  relations  with  Mohammedan  institutions)  produces  the  very 
opposite  effect  on  me.  The  more  I  see  of  that  religion,  the  more 
convinced  I  am  that  from  it  springs  the  gradual  downfall  of  the 
Mussulman.  Mahomet's  mistake,  which  was  to  weld  together  a 
code  of  civil  and  political  institutions  with  a  religious  belief,  in  such 
a  way  as  to  impose  on  the  former  the  immovability  which  is  in 
the  nature  of  the  latter,  wao  in  itself  enough  to  doom  its  followers 
to  inferiority  first,  and  then  to  unavoidable  destruction.  Chris- 
tianity derived  its  grandeur  and  sanctity  from  never  having 
entered  any  paths  but  those  of  religion,  leaving  the  rest  to  follow 
with  the  progress  and  free  development  of  the  human  mind. 
But  here  I  am  beginning  a  chapter,  and  forgetting  that  I  am 
supposed  to  be  writing  a  letter.  Having  happily  recollected  in 
time,  I  will  now  close  and  beg  you  to  believe  me,  &c.  &c.  &c., 

ALEXIS  DE  TOCQUEVILLE. 

P.S. — The  day  of  our  departure  from  Paris  Madame  de 
Tocqueville  received  a  letter  in  which  you  introduced  Mr. 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  329 

Warburton  to  her.  I  immediately  wrote  and  expressed  our 
regret  at  leaving  Paris  without  seeing  him.  But  on  my  return 
I  shall  hasten  to  look  him  up. 

The  month  of  June,  1844,  proved  fatal  to  the  poet 
Campbell,  between  whom  and  Milnes  a  friendship  of 
very  long  standing  existed.  Mention  has  already  been 
made  of  the  fact  that  Campbell's  sister  had  been  a 
governess  in  the  house  of  Mr.  B,.  P.  Milnes  during  the 
early  years  of  his  sisters,  the  aunts  of  R.  M.  Milnes.  In 
Campbell's  correspondence  an  interesting  letter  is  to  be 
found,  describing  his  first  visit  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Pem- 
berton  Milnes.  Justly  jealous  of  the  position  which  he  had 
achieved  for  himself  by  his  own  genius,  he  appears  to  have 
gone  to  the  house  of  his  sister's  employer  somewhat  fearful 
of  the  reception  with  which  he  would  meet ;  but  his  fears 
had  been  dispelled  in  the  most  delightful  fashion  by  the 
friendliness  of  the  greeting  he  had  received  both  from 
Mr.  Milnes  and  his  wife ;  and  from  that  time  forward  a 
warm  friendship  had  subsisted  between  Campbell  and 
the  Milnes  family.  It  was  immediately  after  the  death 
of  Campbell  himself  that  Milnes  appealed  to  Sir  Robert 
Peel  to  obtain  for  Campbell's  nearest  surviving  relative 
(a  nephew)  an  appointment  in  the  Civil  Service.  The 
appeal  was  successful,  Sir  Robert  giving  expression  to 
the  pleasure  with  which  he  found  himself  able  to  do 
anything  for  the  relative  of  so  distinguished  a  man  of 
letters  as  Campbell;  and  yet,  though  Milnes  was  thus 
eager  to  do  anything  in  his  power  to  assist  the  connec- 
tions of  his  old  friend,  he  was  not  among  the  more 
ardent  admirers  of  Campbell's  genius. 


330  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

July  \st,  1844. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, —  .  .  .  Thomas  Campbell  is  to  be 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  on  Wednesday.  On  the  whole,  he 
has  got  Poets'  Corner  cheap :  "  le  coin  retire  des  reveurs  de 
Tempire  "  holds  few  men  who  have  not  done  more.  What  would 
the  "  Pleasures  of  Hope "  be  written  now  ?  "  Hohenlinden  " 
and  "  Ye  Mariners  of  England  "  are  very  good,  but  not  better 
than  "  Sir  John  Moore/'  by  some  Irish  parson  who  sleeps 
quietly  amidst  his  bogs.  .  .  .  We  have  had  a  sort  of 
Ministerial  crisis,  which  made  a  little  row  for  three  days.  The 
Government  were  beat  on  a  matter  of  detail  by  a  combination  of 
the  High  Protection  party  and  the  Whigs,  and  were  only  saved 
on  a  revision  of  the  vote  by  eleven  ultra- Radical  Leaguers  voting 
with  them.  Sir  Robert  lost  both  tact  and  temper,  and,  it  is  said, 
resigned  for  himself  and  Gladstone,  but  was  begged  to 
reconsider  it.  The  row,  however,  was  no  sooner  over  than  a 
tremendous  hubbub  was  raised  against  Sir  James  Graham  for 
having  issued  a  warrant  to  open  the  letters  of  Mazzini,  an 
Italian  refugee,  who  has  been  organising  a  "  Young  Italian  " 
descent  on  Italy  from  Malta.  Graham  foolishly  owned  to  the 
warrant,  and  then  shut  up,  and  refused  to  utter  a  syllable. 
You  will  see  the  papers  are  full  of  nothing  else — the  Times 
particularly.  What  makes  the  injustice  the  greater  is  that  the 
affair,  right  or  wrong,  must  rest  with  the  Foreign  Office,  and  can 
have  nothing  to  do  with  Graham.  My  family  are  all  tolerably 
well,  my  father  devoted  to  his  rurality.  Sir  F.  Doyle  is  going 
to  marry  the  younger  Miss  Wynn,  and  they  are  to  begin  with 
£500  per  annum  and  the  hope  of  a  place.  Wiseman  has  been 
indoctrinating  the  Lords  with  Roman  law  on  the  case  of  the 
Duke  of  Sussex's  marriage.  They  say  he  did  it  remarkably 
well. 

I  remain  yours  always, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  331 

E.  M.  M.  to  Us  Father. 

June  Zlst,  1844. 

The  whole  state  of  things  is  very  worrying.  Peel  is 
absolutely  indefensible ;  he  is  asking  from  his  party  all  the 
blind  confidence  the  country  gentlemen  placed  in  Mr.  Pitt,  all 
the  affectionate  devotion  Mr.  Canning  won  from  his  friends, 
and  all  the  adherence  Lord  John  and  the  Whigs  get  from  their 
"family  compact/'  without  himself  fulfilling  any  one  of  the 
engagements  on  his  side. 

They  will  get  over  this  Session,  from  its  lateness  and  a 
vague  despair  of  doing  anything  better;  but,  without  some 
internal  change,  another  Session  must  finish  them.  Peel's 
speech  was  the  oddest  compound  of  candour,  ill-temper,  humi- 
liation, menace,  and  a  hundred  other  motives ;  -it  gave  you  the 
impression  of  a  petulant  woman  crying,  "  I  can't  and  I  won't 
stand  this  any  longer."  It  was  a  bad  speech,  too,  in  manner 
and  diction. 

Lord  Stanley  pleased  me  excessively;  it  was  as  good  as 
possible,  and  really,  I  think,  won  votes ;  its  temperate  and 
reasonable  tone  came  with  the  sort  of  advantage  that  an  ill- 
tempered  man  has  when  he  chooses  to  be  good-humoured ;  the 
House  were  flattered  that  Stanley  thought  it  worth  while  to  be 
conciliating.  R.  M.  M. 

The  same  to  the  same. 

All  your  suggestions  are  excellent,  but  with  this  defect, 
that  it  is  exactly  those  qualifications  which  have  prevented  me 
from  being  more  attended  to  and  regarded.  How  can  the  Duke 
of  Richmond,  who  states  that  one  of  his  tenants  pays  more  in  rates 
than  the  whole  of  the  League,  or  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who  asserts 
that  the  price  of  food  has  no  effect  on  wages,  care  for  a  man  of 
guarded  assertions  and  careful  declarations?  That  is  exactly 
what  G.  means  by  not  keeping  one's  nose  to  the  ground. 

Two  Lordships  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Clerkship  of  the 
Ordnance  are  vacant  to-day  and  more  expected,  all,  except 
Mahon's,  requiring  re-election  ;  this  must  embarrass  the 


332  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

Government.  When  Peel  spoke  about  patronage,  &c.,  he  looked 
so  markedly  at  me,  that  both  Buller  and  Charteris,  who  were  on 
each  side,  burst  out  laughing.  My  answer  would  have  been, 
"  In  this  case  you  had  no  right  to  select  at  all." 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  that,  whatever  the  issue  may  be, 
Peel,  as  a  leader,  is  done  for.  He  may  coalesce  with  Lord  John, 
or  retire  into  private  life;  but  as  to  holding  men  together  after 
this,  it  is  impossible.  He  has  forfeited  the  only  kind  of  con- 
fidence left  him,  viz.,  that  in  his  practical  management  of 
affairs. 


The  same  to  the  same. 

I  have  your  political  diatribe.  Peel,  of  course,  knows  all 
you  can  tell  him,  but  does  not  choose  to  say  it — that's  all.  He 
evidently  won't  argue  the  case,  but  is  determined  to  make  the 
most  of  difficulties,  and  to  force  the  measure  down  the  throat  of 
the  country.  I  never  saw  him  more  haughty  and  uncompro- 
mising. You  see,  he  won't  even  yield  the  Factory  Bill,  which 
would  have  enabled  him  to  take  Ashley  into  the  Government. 
Lord  Courtenay  is  not  a  bad  appointment — if  true,  and  Devon- 
shire returns  him I  never  knew  till  the  other  day  who 

was  the  author  of  the  article  on  Lords  Grey  and  Spencer,  which 
came  in  quite  late,  and  forced  me  to  cut  mine  short.  It  was 
Lord  John's,  and  is  abominably  written.  I  go  to  town  on 
Tuesday,  but  have  written  to  Mr.  Graely  to-day  to  present  the 
petition.  What  say  you  to  John  Manners's  letter  ?  It  would 
not  have  done  for  a  less  conspicuous  person,  but  suits  him,  I 
think,  very  well. 

Yours  affectionately, 

E.  M.  M. 

The  same  to  the  same. 

My  accident,  which  prevented  me  from  voting,  was  being 
very  late  at  Dickens's  dinner — nothing  more  unfortunate.  Pray 
take  care  what  you  write  to  me,  as  the  Government  read 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  333 

everybody's  letters.  A  young  lady  undertook  to  convert 
Mazzini  to  Protestantism,  and  is  dreadfully  disgusted  on 
Graham  having  studied  all  her  controversy.  Mrs.  Carlyle, 
too,  is  in  a  great  way  at  all  her  letters  to  him  having  been 
overhauled. 

I  think  I  shall  keep  in  the  south  during  August,  and  come 
to  Yorkshire  the  middle  of  September.  I  expect  the  Scientifics 
at  Fryston  the  first  week  of  October,  and  perhaps  "  Groter 
Grandi  Glover"  to  lighten  them.  Duke*  will  tell  you  all  about 
me.  This  thunderous  weather  has  made  me  very  nervously 
electrical;  I  could  see  the  sparks  coming  out  of  my  fingers  in 
the  dark.  I  am  going  to  see  the  somnambulist  Alexis  this 
afternoon. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

The  relations  between  England  and  France  were  at 
this  time  somewhat  troubled,  owing  to  the  Tahiti  affair, 
which  had  excited  the  strongest  indignation  in  the  minds 
of  Englishmen.  It  had  been  hoped  that  the  visit  which 
Louis  Philippe  was  about  to  pay  to  the  Queen,  in  return 
for  that  which  she  had  paid  to  the  French  monarch, 
would  help  to  allay  the  popular  excitement ;  but  so 
strong  was  the  feeling  on  both  sides  that  it  seemed 
likely  the  visit  would  be  indefinitely  postponed. 

R.  M.  M.  to  M.  Guizot. 

Fryston,  Pontefract,  Aug.  31st,  1844. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  cannot  express  to  you  with  what  deep 
regret  I  have  read  this  morning  in  the  papers  that  your  King  is 
not  coming  to  England  this  year,  and  it  is  not  only  vexatious 
because  it  will  be  taken  as  a  triumph  by  your  war  faction  and 

*  Mr.  Mannaduke  Wyvill,  cousin  of  B.  M.  Milnes. 


334  TEE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

our  Palmerston  party,  but  because  it  frustrates  the  hope  that 
you  and  Lord  Aberdeen  would  have  been  able  to  come  to  a 
better  understanding  by  a  week's  mutual  conference  than  you 
can  possibly  do  by  diplomatic  correspondence.  Lord  Palmerston 
came  down  upon  the  House  with  his  slave  trade  speech  quite 
unexpectedly,  or  else  you  would  have  heard  from  far  more 
important  persons  than  myself  the  expression  of  how  unsatis- 
factory we  regard  the  present  state  of  the  right  of  search 
question  to  be,  and  how  ready  we  should  be  to  come  to  some 
other  arrangement.  I  am  sure,  too,  from  Sir  Robert  Peel's 
manner  when  Mr.  Shiel  brought  forward  the  question  of  Algiers, 
that  he  and  Lord  Aberdeen  were  only  looking  out  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  settle  the  affair  of  the  "  exequatur."  It  is  quite  true 
that  a  strong  feeling  against  what  they  call  French  aggression 
is  rising  up  in  the  House  of  Commons,  particularly  among  the 
country  gentlemen  ;  and  if  matters  go  on  in  an  irritating  direc- 
tion, I  fear  Sir  Robert  will  have  a  very  hard  struggle  with 
Palmerston  and  such  friends  of  his  as  Watt  and  Macaulay  next 
Session.  I  don't  think  anybody  cares  much  about  Tahiti  except 
the  Dissenters,  and  they  are  in  such  an  inconsistent  position  in 
raising  a  war-cry  that  they  will  exercise  but  little  influence. 
Morocco  is  a  different  matter,  and  the  threat  of  the  French  Lake 
is  continually  before  our  eyes.  With  all  your  hard  experience  of 
African  colonisation,  we  conjecture  the  sole  object  you  (not  indi- 
vidually, but  the  country)  could  have  at  present  in  occupying 
any  Moorish  possessions  would  be  to  bully  England.  The  Queen 
is  going  to  Scotland  for  the  air ;  she  is  to  travel  as  nearly 
incognita  as  possible,  and  will  not  pay  many  visits.  The  young 
prince  is  to  have  the  old  English  name  of  Alfred. 

With  all  regards  to  your  excellent  and  amiable  family 
I  remain 

Yours  always  and  obliged, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES, 


POLITICAL   AND   LITERARY   LIFE.  335 

Fortunately,  M.  Guizot  and  Louis  Philippe  were  as 
anxious  as  any  Englishman  could  have  been  to  restore 
the  good  understanding  between  the  two  countries, 
and  the  Tahiti  difficulty  was  accordingly  settled  in 
September,  with  the  result  that  the  French  King  came 
over  to  England  on  his  promised  visit  in  October. 

R.  M.  M.  to   W.  E.   Gladstone. 

September  1th,  1844. 

DEAR  GLADSTONE, — Do  you  happen  to  have  a  loose  copy  of 
your  review  of  "  Ellen  Middleton  "  ?  and  if  so,  could  you  send 
me  one  to  Serlby  ?  I  and  others  want  much  to  see  it,  and  they 
had  lost  theirs  at  Hagley.  I  had  a  very  pleasant  visit  there, 
and  am  now  at  Hanmer's,  previous  to  entertaining  "  scientifics  " 
at  the  York  meeting.  I  had  never  any  fear  about  the  French 
matters  ;  the  grievances  were  much  too  complicated  not  to  be 
settled  by  a  skilful  diplomacy :  it  is  your  simple  faet  which  is 
the  hard  thing  to  compromise. 

It  is  to  me  a  new  jurisprudential  consideration  that  our  Court 
of  Ultimate  Appeal,  which  is  to  overrule  the  decisions  of  all  those 
judges  whom  we  are  authorised  to  believe  as  far  denuded  as  men 
can  be  of  political  partialities,  is  to  consist  of  five  or  six  gentlemen 
who,  however  pure-minded  they  may  be,  are  submitted  to  the 
inevitable,  though  perhaps  imperceptible,  influences  of  party 
conflicts,  and  whose  opinions  must  thus  be  coloured,  as  certainly 
as  is  the  stream  by  the  soil  over  which  it  runs.  I  do  not  see 
that  you  will  get  over  this  difficulty  by  extending  the  jurisdiction 
to  the  whole  House,  who  would  be  still  more  subject  to  party 
ties.  The  evil  lies  in  the  constitution  of  the  House  itself,  in 
having  a  political  tribunal  as  ultimate  judge  in  political  trials. 

Yours  always, 

E»    M.    MlLNES. 

The  latter  part  of  the  foregoing  letter  refers  to  the 


336  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

well-known  difficulty  which  arose  from  the  appeal  of 
O'Connell  against  the  sentence  passed  upon  him  in  the 
lower  Courts  to  the  House  of  Lords.  Five  Law  Lords 
heard  the  appeal ;  and  whilst  two  (Lord  Lyndhurst  and 
Lord  Brougham)  were  of  opinion  that  the  sentence  of 
the  Court  below  should  be  affirmed,  three  (Lords 
Denman,  Cottenham,  and  Campbell)  thought  that  the 
sentence  should  be  reversed,  and  the  conviction  quashed. 
At  that  time  every  Peer  had  a  right  to  vote  in  the 
Court  of  Appeal,  whether  he  happened  to  be  lawyer 
or  layman ;  and,  but  for  a  strong  appeal  addressed  to 
the  House  by  Lord  Wharncliffe,  it  is  probable  that  on 
this  occasion  the  country  would  have  witnessed  the 
scandal  of  a  solemn  political  trial  being  decided  by  a 
purely  and  avowedly  partisan  vote.  Happily,  better 
counsels  prevailed,  and  the  decision  was  left  to  the  Law 
Lords  alone;  the  result  being  the  reversal  of  the 
sentence  upon  O'Connell  and  his  associates.  Mr. 
Gladstone's  reply  expressed  his  general  concurrence 
with  Milnes  as  to  the  probable  issue  of  the  French 
questions,  and  admitted  the  force  of  his  remarks  as  to 
the  House  of  Lords  and  the  O'Connell  trial. 

In  October  Mr.  Disraeli  and  his  wife  visited  Fryston 
as  the  guests  of  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes.  During  their 
stay  Milnes  himself  delivered  a  lecture  at  Pomfret  on 
the  history  of  Pomfret  Castle.  There  were  amateur 
theatricals,  too,  at  the  house,  in  which  Milnes  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  performance  of  Mrs.  Cramp. 
Years  before,  he  had  been  one  of  the  most  popular 
members  of  the  Cambridge  Amateur  Dramatic  Club,  and 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY  LIFE.  337 

his  assistance  was  at  all  times  eagerly  sought  by  those 
of  his  friends  who  were  engaged  in  amateur  perform- 
ances. As  he  grew  older  he  retained  his  liking  for 
acting,  and  never  lost  his  interest  in  the  dramatic  art 
or  in  dramatic  artists,  whether  amateur  or  professional. 
The  present  may  be  a  suitable  point  at  which  to 
quote  one  of  the  many  sketches  of  Lord  Houghton  with 
which  Mr.  Disraeli  enlivened  the  pages  of  his  novels. 
It  is  the  portrait  of  Mr.  Vavasour  in  "  Tancred,"  and  is 
Mr.  Disraeli's  conception  of  Milnes  about  the  period  in 
his  life  with  which  I  am  now  dealing. 

Mr.  Vavasour  was  a  social  favourite,  a  poet,  and  a  real  poet, 
quite  a  troubadour,  as  well  as  a  member  of  Parliament ;  travelled, 
sweet  tempered  and  good  hearted,  very  amusing  and  very 
clever.  With  catholic  sympathies  and  an  eclectic  turn  of  mind, 
Mr.  Vavasour  saw  something  good  in  everybody  and  everything, 
which  is  certainly  amiable,  and  perhaps  just,  but  disqualifies 
a  man  in  some  degree  for  the  business  of  life,  which  requires 
for  its  conduct  a  certain  degree  of  prejudice.  Mr.  Vavasour's 
breakfasts  were  renowned.  Whatever  your  creed,  class,  or 
merit — one  might  almost  add,  your  character — you  were  a  wel- 
come guest  at  his  matutinal  meal,  provided  you  were  celebrated. 
That  qualification,  however,  was  rigidly  enforced.  Individuals 
met  at  his  hospitable  house  who  had  never  met  before,  but  who 
for  years  had  been  cherishing  in  solitude  mutual  detestation 
with  all  the  irritable  exaggeration  of  the  literary  character. 
He  prided  himself  on  figuring  as  the  social  medium  by  which 
rival  reputations  became  acquainted,  and  paid  each  other  in  his 
presence  the  compliments  which  veiled  their  ineffable  disgust. 
All  this  was  very  well  in  the  Albany,  and  only  funny ;  but 
when  he  collected  his  menageries  at  his  ancestral  hall  in  a 
distant  county,  the  sport  sometimes  became  tragic.  A  real 
philosopher,  alike  from  his  genial  disposition,  and  from  the 


338  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

influence  of  his  rich  and  various  information,  Vavasour  moved 
amid  the  strife,  sympathising  with  every  one;  and  perhaps, 
after  all,  the  philanthropy  which  was  his  boast  was  not  untinged 
by  a  dash  of  humour,  of  which  rare  and  charming  quality  he 
possessed  no  inconsiderate  portion.  Vavasour  liked  to  know 
everybody  who  was  known,  and  to  see  everything  which  ought 
to  be  seen.  His  life  was  a  gyration  of  energetic  curiosity,  an 
insatiable  whirl  of  social  celebrity.  There  was  not  a  congrega- 
tion of  sages  and  philosophers  in  any  part  of  Europe  which  he 
did  not  attend  as  a  brother.  He  was  present  at  the  camp  of 
Kalisch  in  his  Yeomanry  uniform,  and  assisted  at  the  festivals 
of  Barcelona  in  an  Andalusian  jacket.  He  was  everywhere  and 
at  everything ;  he  had  gone  down  in  a  diving  bell,  gone  up  in 
a  balloon.  As  for  his  acquaintances,  he  was  welcomed  in 
every  land ;  his  universal  sympathies  seemed  omnipotent. 
Emperor  and  king,  Jacobin  and  Carbonari,  alike  cherished  him. 
He  was  the  steward  of  Polish  balls,  and  the  vindicator  of 
Russian  humanity;  he  dined  with  Louis  Philippe  and  gave 
dinners  to  Louis  Blanc. 

The  reader  who  has  followed  this  narrative  is  already 
able  to  correct  some  of  the  exaggerations  into  which  the 
novelist  has  fallen  in  this  description.  True  it  un- 
doubtedly is,  but  it  does  not  contain  the  whole  truth ; 
whilst  in  one  important  particular  it  is  essentially  false. 
Mere  celebrity  was  never  the  key  to  the  attentions  of 
Milnes ;  merit  of  some  kind,  distinction,  perhaps  singu- 
larity, certainly  originality,  all  these  were  claims  which 
he  cheerfully  recognised ;  but  I  have  told  my  story  so 
far  in  vain  if  the  reader  has  not  already  learned  that 
Milnes'  sympathies  were  as  easily  bestirred,  and  his 
kind  heart  moved,  on  behalf  of  the  obscure  as  on  behalf 
of  those  who  had  already  achieved  fame,  and  who  had 
no  need  of  his  patronage.  For  the  rest,  the  brilliant 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  339 

picture  drawn  by  Mr.  Disraeli  of  the  social  favourite 
welcomed  in  every  land  and  in  every  circle,  the  friend 
not  only  of  classes  the  most  different,  but  of  individuals 
and  orders  the  most  antagonistic,  is  one  the  accuracy  of 
which  cannot  be  questioned. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Oct.  .14^,  1844. 

.  .  .  Louis  Philippe  is  here  for  a  day  or  two ;  does  not 
leave  Windsor,  and  sees  nobody  but  dukes  and  courtiers.  He 
went,  however,  over  his  old  house  at  Twickenham,  full  of  memories 
indeed  for  him  !  The  Emperor  of  Russia  is  doing  his  very  best 
to  get  up  a  war  between  England  and  France,  offering  us  "  tout  le 
corps  de  son  empire,"  and  promising  to  stick  by  English  interests 
as  long  as  he  has  a  ship  or  a  soldier.  God  grant  this  Cossack 
Satan  may  not  seduce  us  !  But  people — foolish  people  who  make 
public  opinion — certainly  talk  much  more  glibly  of  war  than 
they  did.  You  must  have  been  amused  at  the  name  of  "  Young 
England/'  which  we  started  so  long  ago,  being  usurped  by 
opinions  so  different  and  so  inferior  a  tone  of  thought.  It  is, 
however,  a  good  phenomenon  in  its  way,  and  one  of  its  products 
— Lord  John  Manners — a  very  fine  promising  fellow.  The  worst 
of  them  is  that  they  are  going  about  the  country  talking  educa- 
tion and  liberality,  and  getting  immense  honour  for  the  very 
things  for  which  the  Radicals  have  been  called  all  possible  black- 
guards and  atheists  a  few  years  ago.  It  is  just  the  unfairness  of 
the  parable  of  "  wages "  which  so  shocks  the  young  Christian 
political  economist.  Montalembert  has  published  his  three 
speeches  in  a  little  book,  and  has  written  a  swinging  letter  on 
Puseyism,  for  which  he  has  neither  mercy  nor  sympathy.  He 
denounces  it  as  an  insolent  imposture. 

I  should  think  you  could  get  "Lord  Eldon's  Life"  from 
America.  It  is  a  capital  piece  of  political  gossiping.  Stanley's 
"  Life  of  Arnold "  is  a  good  book,  too.  There  is  a  delightful 


340  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Voltairean  volume  on  the  East,  called  "  Eothen,"  which  I  will 
send  you  some  day  if  you  do  not  see  it  before.  You  will  by  this 
time  have  got  over  the  hot  weather,  and  are  starting,  I  hope,  for 
a  healthy  winter.  If  all  goes  well  with  my  sister,*  I  shall  con- 
front the  cold  of  Berlin,  and  hope  to  see  a  good  deal  of  Varnhagen, 
who  promised  me  much  intellectual  hospitality.  I  have  a  notion 
I  shall  find  the  King  what  the  Yorkshiremen  call  "  a  little  soft/' 
but  very  good.  Bunsen  is  in  higher  favour  with  him  than  ever. 
Colvile  has  seen  a  good  deal  of  Comte  de  Senfft  at  Munich,  and 
has  been  delighted  with  him. 

Your  affectionate, 

R.  M.  MILNES. 

In  December  Milnes  at  last  carried  out  his  purpose 
of  visiting  Berlin,  and,  arriving  in  the  Prussian  capital,  he 
was  immediately  received  with  the  greatest  cordiality 
and  hospitality  by  many  of  the  leading  celebrities  of  the 
city,  among  whom  Baron  Humboldt  was  conspicuous. 

One  of  tbe  attractions  of  the  Prussian  capital  to 
Milnes  at  this  time  was  the  presence  in  it  of  George 
von  Bunsen,  the  son  of  Baron  von  Bunsen.  Young 
von  Bunsen  was  a  mere  youth  at  the  time  ;  but  he  was 
the  son  of  a  friend  whom  he  greatly  respected,  and 
Milnes  made  it  his  business  to  see  as  much  as  possible 
of  him  during  his  stay  in  Berlin.  The  friendship 
which  then  began  was  continued  to  the  end  of  his  life, 
and  thenceforth  George  von  Bunsen  took  his  place  in 
tbat  circle  of  inner  friends  to  whom  Milnes  opened  his 
heart  with  a  freedom  of  which  the  world  had  no 
suspicion. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  comparatively  few  of  his  letters 

*  Lady  Galway  had  just  given  birth  to  a  son. 


POLITICAL    AND    LITEPARY   LIFE.  341 

from  Germany  are  extant,  for  his  observations  of  Prussian 
society  and  German  politics  at  that  critical  period  in  the 
history  of  Europe,  when  the  revolutionary  forces  that 
came  to  a  head  in  1848  were  already  beginning  to  show 
themselves  above  the  surface,  would  have  been  pecu- 
liarly interesting.  I  have  spoken  of  the  "  Commonplace 
Books  "  which  Milnes  kept  during  many  years,  and  a 
few  extracts  from  that  which  was  written  about  the  time 
of  his  Prussian  visit  will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of 
the  varied  subjects  which  engaged  his  attention  whilst 
residing  in  the  Prussian  capital.  I  shall  give  these 
extracts  exactly  as  I  find  them  in  Milnes'  handwriting, 
nor  will  they  lose  any  part  of  their  effect  from  their 
terseness. 

From  "  Commonplace  Book." 

King  of  Prussia,  taking  leave  of  King  of  Bavaria:  "My 
dear  brother,  do  promise  me  to  make  no  more  verses/'  Answer : 
"  My  dear  brother,  do  promise  me  to  make  no  more  promises/' 

I  like  the  town  of  Brunswick — the  curious  gabled  houses  in 
the  broad  streets,  the  handsome  palace,  with  the  people  passing 
freely  through  its  gardens  and  by  its  windows,  the  tame  crows 
pecking  about  in  the  quiet  spaces,  and  the  strange  old  churches, 
with  their  two  towers  united  by  huge  florid  windows.  Of  the 
princes,  too,  in  the  Cathedral  vault,  eight  have  fallen  in  brave 
battle.  Few  Royal  houses,  if  any,  can  say  as  much. 

The  solitude  of  Hanover  is  such  that  Zimmermann  himself 
could  not  stand  it — and  died  there. 

In  Germany  all  the  books  are  in  sheets,  and  all  the  beds 
without. 

Humboldt  to  myself  :  "  Moi  qui  suis  le  pere  eternel  de  torn 
les  voyageurs." 

Princess  Radziwill  saying  they  had  got  to  ask  one  to  dinner 
such  an  immense  time  before — sometimes  even  five  days. 


342  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

Extreme  rarity  of  notes  or  letters  in  Berlin  society,  probably 
originating  in  the  fear  of  not  writing  good  French  and  a  sharp 
spirit  of  criticism  of  language. 

The  Princess  of  Prussia  the  best  princess  on  any  stage. 

Horses  covered  with  leopard  skins  to  protect  them  while 
standing  out 

The  window  frames  covered  with  green  moss  outside. 

Had  capital  dinner  at  the  Baron  de  Renduffe's,  Portuguese 
Minister.  Jambon  d'ours  au  vin  de  Cypres,  gelinottes  (hasel- 
huhn),  gateau  au  creme  de  noix,  Maharaca,  a  Brazilian  sweetmeat 
like  quince. 

The  droschky  drivers  give  you  a  lottery  ticket  for  every  jaunt 
you  take,  and  these  are  drawn  at  the  end  of  the  month  with 
considerable  prizes.  The  Berlin  people  delight  in  all  kinds  of 
lotteries. 

When  there  is  a  regular  "  hof/'  none  of  the  Royal  family 
are  supposed  to  take  any  part  except  the  King  and  Queen.  It 
is  strictly  the  Queen's  reception,  and  thus  the  other  princesses 
follow  her  in  procession,  and  stand  along  the  wall  of  each  room 
while  she  is  going  round,  but  not  even  speaking  to  one 
another. 

Madame  de  Liegnitz  had  no  pages  to  hold  her  train,  which 
was  of  a  cometary  length. 

The  wonderful  Vaudeville  figure  of  the  Countess  de  Roede, 
the  "  Hofmeisterin,"  with  a  black  or  purple  ribbon  across  her 
bosom  as  a  badge. 

At  a  "  Trauercour  "  the  Queen  sits  on  the  throne  veiled  in 
a  half-dark  room,  and  the  company  pass  with  muffled  swords 
and  epaulettes. 

The  late  Prince  of  Schwarzburg  Sondershausen,  hearing  that 
a  deputation  was  coming  to  ask  for  a  Constitution,  telling  them 
he  would  address  them  from  a  window,  appearing  with  a 
double-barrelled  gun,  and  declaring  he  would  shoot  whoever 
said  anything  to  displease  him.  (They  have  one  now  under 
his  son,  which  met  the  other  day,  and  dispersed  in  three  days, 
having  voted  money  to  build  a  new  palace.) 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  343 

The  wives  of  the  bourgeois  ministers,  though  bearing  the 
title  of  Excellency,  never  go  to  Court,  nor  their  families.  The 
King  made  Bunsen  sit  at  a  table  with  the  Excellencies,  which 
made  an  immense  indignation. 

Neander  and  his  sister  have  lived  inseparable  all  their  lives  ; 
when  he  has  been  ill,  she  has  been  sleeping  on  a  mattress  at  his 
door,  to  be  ready  if  he  wanted  anything.  She  is  said  to  be  the 
author  of  a  great  part  of  the  Church  History,  and  to  have 
inspired  the  whole.  Her  health  is  always  drunk  by  the  students 
on  his  Feiertag  (Jan.  16).  In  the  answer  to  them,  I  heard  he 
warned  them  against  substituting  any  letter  for  the  spirit  of 
God,  and  told  them  not  to  believe  in,  or  follow  any  man,  or  any 
man's  work,  but  God's  spirit,  as  shown  in  and  through  men.  A 
congratulatory  letter  was  read  from  some  Scotch  students  of  the 
Free  Church,  thanking  him  for  the  "  intellectual  and  religious 
life  which  they  had  learned  as  German  students  under  his 
direction  and  counsel/' 

Beier,  who  is  revising  the  "Wunderhorn,"  saying,  when  I  had 
left  the  room,  "  Is  it  possible  an  Englishman  can  be  so  lovable?" 

Bettine  to  me :  "  You  write  about  the  beating  of  your 
heart,  so  it  never  really  beats,  you  old  bachelor,  you  ! " 

At  two  dinners  I  went  to  in  Berlin  the  lady  of  the  house 
was  sent  for  to  make  fourteen. 

I  dined  at  Berlin  with  Renduffe  (Portuguese),  Dalmatic 
(French),  Antonini  (Neapolitan),  Meyerndorff  (Russian),  am- 
bassadors ;  Redern,  Werther,  Arnim,  V.  Radowitz,  Pentz,  the 
King,  the  three  Princes,  Gudin,  Elliot,  Ward,  and  Lord 
Westmoreland. 

Parties  at  the  King's",  two  Princes',  Bulow's,  Leucterfeld's, 
Werther's,  Arnim's,  Savigny's,  Cornelius's,  Raikes's.  I  could 
not  stay  for  the  Austrian  Ambassador's. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Berlin,  Jan.  YltK,  1845. 

All  thanks  for  your  long,  chatty  letter.  It  arrived  in  the 
midst  of  a  cold  fog  which  wanted  much  warming.  My  present 
intention  is  to  leave  this  the  middle  of  next  week,  and  go 


344  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD   EOUGHTON. 

leisurely  home  by  Frankfort,  so  as  to  arrive  in  town  for  the 
next  debate  after  the  Address,  whatever  it  may  be ;  so  do  not 
forward  any  more  letters  here,  but  send  them  to  Koln,  which 
I  must  pass  anyhow.  Lord  Westmoreland  has  been  the  last 
week  with  his  friends  of  Hanover,  and  my  lady  ill,  so  that  the 
house  has  been  quite  shut  up.  The  anti-Bunsenites  have  been 
quite  successful — one  way  or  the  other — in  preventing-  the  King 
from  having  any  talk  with  me.  As  I  have  done  all  that  was 
civil,  and  Lord  Westmoreland  always  shown  his  good-will  to 
me,  I  cannot  care  about  this  politically  or  socially  ;  and  am  only 
worried  that  two  such  men  as  Bunsen  and  Humboldt  should 
have  put  themselves  in  a  false  position  for  me.  The  former  was 
evidently  anxious  that  the  King  should  quite  win  me  over ;  and 
I  am  not  sorry  that  I  am  now  left  to  speak  or  write  whatever 
I  please,  without  any  fear  of  a  charge  of  Custinism.  For  a 
stranger,  the  etiquette  of  society  here  is  very  gSnant ;  you 
cannot  dance  opposite  a  lady  in  a  quadrille  without  being 
introduced  to  her.  The  learned  people,  on  the  contrary,  are 
simple  and  unpedantic,  and  very  good  company;  they  are, 
however,  too  busy  to  have  much  time  to  give  to  mere  talk.  The 
tendency  of  things  here  is  eminently  practical,  as  we  shall  soon 
find  by  an  increase  of  the  duty  on  our  twist.  Everybody 
speaks  of  the  industrial  development  of  the  country,  which 
means  nothing  more  nor  less  than  Protection.  I  believe  the 
Ministers  would  be  Free  Traders  if  they  could,  but  public  opinion 
is  too  strong  for  them.  The  most  important  arrival  here  is  that 
of  Lord  Lichfield's  horse  Elis,  bought  by  a  Silesian  count  for 
about  £10,000.  He  came  by  railroad  the  day  before  yesterday 
with  a  lot  of  other  English  horses.  M.  Gudin,  the  French 
painter,  who  married  a  daughter  of  Lord  James  Hay,  is  one  of 
the  pleasantest  foreigners.  There  was  a  great  hitch  about  her 
presentation  at  Court,  having  married  a  painter,  but  she  was 
let  in  by  a  side  way.  The  wives  of  Ministers  who  are  not  noble, 
such  as  Bunsen,  cannot  go  to  Court,  nor  their  families ;  and  the 
Court  here  does  not  only  mean  the  King's  parties,  but  those  of 
all  the  Princes,  making  at  least  half  the  society.  .  .  • 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY  LIFE.  345 

I  rather  think  G  ladstone's  railway  policy  is  the  right  one  ;  you 
may  have  to  pay  a  little  more  for  a  monopolising  line,  but  it 
would  be  much  better  managed  than  a  series  of  small  inde- 
pendent ones,  which  after  all  are  just  as  likely  to  be  made 
monopolies  themselves. 

Whilst  Milnes  was  in  Berlin,  from  which  he  did 
not  return  until  the  middle  of  February,  the  Quarterly 
Review  appeared  with  an  article  upon  his  "  Palm 
Leaves "  that  attracted  considerable  attention.  The 
article  was  not  so  much  a  criticism  of  his  poetry  as  an 
attack  upon  his  principles,  which  were  handled  with  a 
severity  that  was  only  to  be  justified  by  the  writer's 
ignorance  of  Milnes's  love  of  paradox  and  startling 
assertion.  Among  his  friends  the  criticism,  coming 
from  so  influential  an  organ  of  opinion,  caused  both 
uneasiness  and  indignation ;  and  Milnes  came  back  to 
find  that  in  his  own  set  a  small  storm  was  raging  over 
the  merits  of  himself  and  his  critic. 

Eliot  Warburton  to  R.  M.  M. 

Kildare  St.  Club,  Dublin,  Feb.  12^,  1845. 
MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Receive  a  hearty  welcome  home  !  I 
rejoice  to  hear  that  you  are  in  England,  and  desire  much  to  see 
you.  I  have  just  had  the  most  pained  letter  from  a  man  who 
reviewed  you  in  the  last  Quarterly  on  finding,  he  says,  that 
his  article  was  considered  an  attack  on  you,  and  that  his 
unlucky  pen  seemed  to  have  a  curse  on  it,  for  his  heartfelt 
praise  was  considered  irony,  while  his  bantering  was  taken  to 
express  real  bitterness.  I  confess,  though  the  writer  did  not 
appreciate  you  as  much  as  the  rest  of  the  world,  I  know,  do 
appreciate  you,  I  think  that  the  fair  impression  derivable  from 
the  article  in  question  is  on  the  whole  tributary  to  your  fame. 
I  think  I  should  feel  as  jealous  of  this  as  any  man  may  well  be 


346  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

over  another's ;  but  if  I  knew  nothing  of  you — except  what  is 
apparent  in  this  Review — I  should  picture  to  myself  a  combina- 
tion of  Beckford,  Sheridan;  and  Alfred  Tennyson — character- 
istics and  powers  that  few,  if  any,  have  ever  attained  to. 
Moreover,  of  one  too  much  talked  of,  and  too  well  known  not 
to  have  his  name  upon  the  oyster-shell,  yet  should  I  not  take 
this  to  be  an  oyster-shell. 

I  hope  you  will  soon  be  in  town.  Pray  write  to  me 
soon,  and 

Believe  me  ever  yours  faithfully  and  affectionately, 

ELIOT  WARBURTON. 

The  writer  of  the  article  himself  addressed  a  mutual 
friend  on  the  subject  of  his  unlucky  strictures,  telling 
him  how  much  he  had  been  distressed  at  finding 
that  he  was  supposed  to  have  written  a  bitter  attack 
upon  a  man  from  whom  he  had  never  received  any- 
thing but  kindness,  and  for  whom,  on  his  part,  he 
entertained  a  warm  affection.  "  If  I  found  that  I  had 
hurt  Milnes's  feelings,  I  should  be  inclined  to  vow  that, 
except  for  political  purposes,  I  would  never  again  use 
the  public  press." 

The  episode  is  of  interest  because  the  critic  who  was 
thus  misconceived  by  Milnes's  enthusiastic  friends  was 
none  other  than  Mr.  Kinglake,  the  author  of  "  Eothen." 
That  Milnes  himself  did  not  feel  aggrieved  by  the 
criticism — which,  if  somewhat  too  serious,  was  still 
entirely  fair — is  proved  by  the  fact  that  we  find  him 
corresponding  in  the  friendliest  manner  with  Mr.  King- 
lake  himself  immediately  after  the  discussion  to  which  I 
have  referred.  The  subject  of  this  new  correspondence 
was  the  condition  of  Thomas  Hood  the  poet,  and  of 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  347 

his  family.  Hood  was  dying  in  circumstances  which 
say  little  for  the  public  appreciation  of  a  great  genius. 
Long  before  this  his  wants  had  been  made  known  to 
Milnes  by  one  of  his  friends,  and  for  months  no  man 
had  done  more  to  relieve  Hood's  distresses  and  to  soothe 
his  mind  than  the  author  of  "  Palm  Leaves."  The  help 
which  he  gave  was  not  the  easy  benevolence  of  a  mere 
gift  in  money.  Money  was  provided  when  required,  but 
Hood's  independence  of  spirit  was  carefully  respected. 
He  was  at  that  time  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the 
magazine  known  as  Hood's  Own,  and  Milnes  found  that 
the  distressed  poet  preferred  to  receive  assistance  in  the 
shape  of  gratuitous  literary  work  for  his  magazine  rather 
than  in  money.  Cheerfully  and  zealously  he  laid  himself 
out  to  render  all  the  help  he  could  in  this  manner  to  the 
author  of  "  The  Song  of  the  Shirt."  None  but  those 
who  are  themselves  engaged  in  literary  work  can  fully 
appreciate  the  extent  of  the  sacrifice  which  he  thus  made. 
Nor  was  it  only  his  own  pen  which  was  freely  placed  at 
the  service  of  the  dying  poet;  he  canvassed  right  and 
left  among  his  friends  for  contributions  to  the  magazine. 

Mr.  Kinglake  to  R.  M.  M. 

Lincoln's  Inn,  Feb.  list,  1845. 

DEAR  MILNES, — Poor  Hood !  It  is  most  painful  to  refuse 
such  a  request  as  that  which  your  note  contains,  and  especially, 
if  I  may  say  so,  when  it  comes  through  you.  Could  it  not  be 
contrived  to  buy  an  article  from  some  competent  litterateur  ?  If 
so,  I  would  gladly  send  £10  for  that  purpose.  Of  course,  poor 
Hood  would  not  know  but  what  the  article  had  been  given  him. 
I  am  ashamed  to  be  driven  to  this  coarsely  English  trick  of 


348  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

offering-  money  (you  ask  for  a  stone,  and  I  give  you  bread) ;  but 
it  would  be  seriously  injurious  to  me  if  the  author  of  "  Eothen  " 
were  afficked  as  contributing  to  a  magazine.  My  frailty  in 
publishing  a  book  has  already,  I  fear,  hurt  me  in  my  profes- 
sion, and  a  small  sin  of  this  kind  would  bring  me  into  still  deeper 
disgrace  with  the  solicitors.  The  moment  I  know  from  you  that 
I  can  contribute  in  the  way  that  I  have  mentioned  without  giving 
offence  I  will  send  my  cheque.  I  shall  see  you  on  Sunday 
morning. 

Always  truly  yours, 

A.  W.  KINGLAKE. 

Hood's  painful  struggle  with  death  lasted  for  some 
months,  and  during  the  whole  of  that  time  Milnes  did 
what  he  could  to  sustain  his  spirits  and  to  surround  his 
family  with  comforts.  He  was  once  more  in  the  thick 
of  the  social  and  political  life  of  London.  His  breakfast 
tables  had  hegun  again,  and  he  was  engaged  by  his 
attendance  upon  Parliament ;  but  he  was  ready  at  any 
moment  to  withdraw  himself  from  any  engagement  in 
order  that  he  might  either  cheer  Hood  by  a  visit  or 
help  to  support  him  by  the  use  of  his  pen.  Some  of  the 
letters  of  Mr.  F.  0.  Ward,  who  acted  on  behalf  of 
Hood's  family,  may  be  cited  because  of  the  picture  they 
afford  of  the  gloomy  close  of  the  poet's  life,  and  because 
also  of  the  light  which  they  throw  upon  Milnes's 
character. 

Mr.  F.  0.  Ward  to  R.  M.  M. 

DEAR  MILNES, — Thanks  for  your  note,  as  prompt  and  as 
kind  as  usual — a  real  service  instead  of  an  elegantly  turned 
excuse.  I  sat  up  all  last  night  trying  to  write,  but  very  unsuc- 
cessfully. My  mind  is  overwhelmed  with  harass  about  Hood 
and  his  family  (who  are  weeping  around  him)  and  the  magazine, 


POLITICAL   AND   LITERARY   LIFE.  849 

the  position  of  which  is,  of  course,  most  precarious ;  but  I  feel 
bound  to  try  to  do  myself  what  I  ask  others  to  do. 

Very  faithfully  yours, 
F.  O.  WARD. 

12,  Cork  Street,  Burlington  Gardens, 

May  UTiy  1845. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Poor  Hood  has  gone  at  last — released 
from  sufferings  the  most  protracted  and  terrible  I  ever  wit- 
nessed. He  died  on  Saturday  afternoon  at  5.30.  I  want 
exceedingly  to  speak  to  you,  and  called  yesterday,  but  you  were 
out.  Will  you  give  me  an  appointment  ?  .  .  . 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

F.  O.  WARD. 

Some  question  was  raised  as  to  where  and  how  the 
poet  should  be  buried.  Milnes  was  consulted  in  the 
matter,  and  urgently  recommended  his  burial  at  Kensal 
Green.  His  death  had  excited  no  small  measure  of 
public  sympathy  on  behalf  of  his  family,  and  there  was 
every  desire,  now  that  he  himself  was  beyond  the  reach 
of  human  aid,  to  render  him  an  abundant  degree  of 
posthumous  honour. 

Mr.  F.  0.  Ward  to  R.  M.  M. 

12,  Cork  Street,  May  Itli,  1845. 

DEAR  MILNES, — Mrs.  Hood  perceived  the  justice  of  your 
remarks,  and  it  is  resolved  to  adopt  your  suggestion  and  bury  him 
in  the  Kensal  Green  Cemetery.  It  is  arranged  that  the  funeral 
train  shall  be  there  at  12  o'clock  on  Saturday  exactly,  so  that 
those  who  come  to  pay  respect  to  his  memory  by  following  him 
to  the  grave  may  not  be  inconvenienced.  I  am  very  anxious 
that  he  should  receive  proper  honour,  and  I  regret  exceedingly 
that  Sir  B.  Peel  is  too  busy  to  come.  When  his  scattered  works 


350  THE  LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

come  to  be  collected  and  finally  appreciated,  they  will  justify 
the  enthusiasm  of  his  warmest  admirers,  and  make  it  a  pleasant 
remembrance  to  have  paid  him  this  last  respect.  I  hope  you  will 
mention  the  time  and  place  fixed  among  your  more  eminent 
friends,  that  they  may  have  the  opportunity,  if  they  wish,  of 
attending.  I  should  have  called,  but  have  been  occupied  all 
day  in  discussing  and  completing  the  arrangements  for  the 
funeral.  I  am  shocked  with  the  manner  of  the  undertakers — 
dilating  on  their  "  finest  velvet/'  their  "  double  row  of  nails/' 
their  "  best  burnished  glory ."  They  advised  a  brass  name-plate 
on  the  coffin,  because  it  would  "  wear  better  "  I  What  an  epigram 
on  human  pride  1 

Faithfully  yours, 

F.  O.  WARD. 

A  subscription  was  raised  for  Hood's  family,  and 
Milnes  took  a  leading  part  in  the  work,  which  happily 
resulted  in  the  collection  of  a  sum  sufficient  to  place 
Mrs.  Hood  in  comfort  for  the  remainder  of  her  days. 

How  this  distressed  family  [writes  Mr.  Ward  to  Milnes], 
how  all  their  friends,  how  I,  how  every  one  who  is  concerned  in 
the  fate  of  literary  men  and  their  surviving  relatives,  will  ever 
be  able  sufficiently  to  acknowledge  your  quiet,  continuous,  and 
most  successful  activity  on  their  behalf,  I  am  sure  I  cannot 
tell.  The  extent  and  facility  of  your  influence  astonishes  me; 
and  I  am  sure  it  will  be  a  happiness  to  you  through  many 
years  to  reflect  that,  chiefly  through  your  freely  given,  dis- 
interested efforts,  the  family  of  so  great  a  poet,  and  so  excellent 
a  man,  are  enjoying — if  not  such  a  position  as  in  a  juster  state 
of  society  would  have  been  assured  to  them — at  least  a  modest 
competence.  I  sometimes  think  that  there  will,  perhaps,  come 
hours  at  the  end  of  life  when  we  shall  look  back  upon  our 
writings  and  speakings  and  toilings,  much  doubting  whether 
after  all  they  were  not  laborious  trifling,  and  only  happy  and 
secure  in  this  conviction — that  whenever  we  did  kindly,  we  did 
well. 


POLITICAL   AND   LITERARY   LIFE.  351 

The  incident  of  Milnes's  connection  with  Hood  in 
the  time  of  his  distress  was  only  one  of  many  such, 
experiences  in  the  course  of  his  busy  and  sparkling  life  ; 
and  there  were  many  names  besides  that  of  the  author 
of  "  The  Song  of  the  Shirt  " — some  of  them  names 
still  held  in  high  reverence  among  living  English 
authors —  which,  in  those  hours  of  reflection  at  the  close 
of  life  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Ward,  must  have  called  up  in 
the  breast  of  Lord  Houghton  the  most  soothing  of  all 
the  memories  that  can  attend  advancing  age  and  de- 
clining strength. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Serlby,  March  ZQtk,  1845. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — We  are  here,  a  large 

family  party,  assembled  for  the  christening  of  my  sister's  son 
and  heir,*  a  fine  bambino.  Colvile  read  me  your  pleasant  letter. 
It  rejoiced  me  to  hear  you  had. so  much  to  do  as  to  have  hardly 
time  to  think.  If  I  am  to  be  imprisoned  at  all,  let  it  be  with 
hard  labour.  Pray  let  me  know  whenever  you  hear  of  a  probable 
vacancy  in  your  part  of  the  world,  which  you  would  prefer  to 
being  where  you  are.  The  Chairman  of  the  Board  cannot  last 
long,  and  I  am  pretty  intimate  with  his  probable  successor. 
Let  me  know  whether  you  can  get  an  American  edition  of 
Thiers's  History ;  if  not,  I  must  send  it  you  whenever  any  of 
these  Turks  return.  It  is,  without  exception,  the  most  mis- 
chievous of  books,  for  not  only  does  it  claim  for  the  violent 
aggressions  of  the  counter- Revolution  all  the  indemnity  that 
the  most  ardent  Democrats  have  allowed  to  the  propaganda  of 
the  Revolution  itself,  but  by  holding  out  the  right  of  search 
and  the  occupation  of  Egypt  as  the  two  most  sacred  causes  for 
which  France  can  engage  in  war,  it  does  its  utmost  to  keep  the 
belligerent  feelings  in  that  country  awake,  and  to  encourage 
•The  present  Viscount  Gal  way. 


352  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTOtf. 

suspicion  of  and  animosity  to  England.  It  is  coloured 
throughout  with  allusions  to  the  present  and  future  state  of 
France,  which  give  it  a  pamphleteering  look,  and  detract  from 
its  historical  dignity.  Even  in  his  battles  he  never  hovers 
observant  over  the  field,  as  a  great  historian  should  do,  but  is 
always  himself  in  the  French  lines,  and  generally  in  the  thickest 
of  the  fray.  Disraeli  has  got  a  new  book  in  the  press.  His 
Philippics  of  late  have  been  capital,  most  artistic  and  telling. 
It  is  the  fashion  to  say  he  only  injures  himself  by  them,  and 
this  may  be  true  for  the  moment ;  but  he  must  take  a  long 
range  (like  Captain  Warner),  and  twenty  such  speeches  must 
tell  in  the  country.  I  am  so  angry  with  Peel  for  passing  over 
out-and-out  the  best  speaker  among  us  younger  men  for  a  pack 
of  illiterate  lordlings,  that  I  am  not  sorry  to  see  the  consequences. 
Disraeli  has  no  Christian  sentimentalities  about  him ;  none  of 
your  forgiveness  of  injuries;  he  is  a  son  of  the  old  jealous 
implacable  Jehovah ;  a  regular  "  hip  and  thigh/'  "  root  and 
branch"  sort  of  Urmensch.  Goethe  would  have  delighted  in 
him.  .  .  .  Peel  brings  in  a  Bill  next  week  to  make  May- 
nooth  a  great  seminary,  and  ,to  establish  two  colleges  like 
the  London  one  in  Ireland.  There  will  be  a  huge  Protestant 
row  for  a  month  or  so,  and  we  pro-Protestants  will  be  threatened 
with  the  loss  of  our  seats.  O'Connell  is  very  low ;  this  eccle- 
siastical schism  has  let  many  persons  behind  the  curtain,  and 
the  Irish  Church  turns  out  to  be  no  more  united  than  any  other. 
Strange  to  see  the  English  Government  taking  an  Ultramontane 
line  and  supporting  the  Jesuits.  The  Italians  know  how  long 
ago  this  ought  to  have  been  done.  Young  Ireland  would 
separate  from  Rome  to-morrow  if  they  dared. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

Did  you  ever  meet  Kinglake  (Eothen)  at  my  rooms  ?  .He 
has  had  immense  success.  I  now  rather  wish  I  had  written  his 
book,  which  I  could  have  done — at  least,  nearly. 

Considering  the  views  entertained  by  Milnes  on  tlie 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  353 

question  of  Catholic  Education  and  the  treatment  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  reawakening  of  theological  passions  occasioned  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel's  action  on  the  question  of  Maynooth 
should  have  brought  a  storm  about  the  ears  of  the 
member  for  Pomfret.  He  had  already  given  proof  of 
his  resolute  independence  ;  he  was  now  once  more  called 
upon  to  withstand  the  attack  of  an  important  section  of 
his  own  followers. 

We  have  the  less  reason  to  be  surprised  at  the  anger 
of  his  ultra- Protestant  constituents,  because  at  the  very 
time  when  their  fury  on  the  question  of  Maynooth  was 
at  its  height,  Milnes,  with  that  calm  disregard  of  times 
and  seasons  so  far  as  they  affected  his  personal  interests, 
which  distinguished  him,  put  forth  his  pamphlet  on  the 
"  Real  Union  of  England  and  Ireland."  In  this  pamph- 
let he  called  upon  the  Conservative  party  to  do  justice 
to  Ireland,  and  to  avert  the  repeal  of  the  Union,  which 
he  feared  must  otherwise  come,  by  endowing  the  Catholic 
Church.  His  proposals,  which  were  stated  with  all  his 
accustomed  force  and  clearness,  won  for  him  the  approval 
of  not  a  few  independent  thinkers  ;  but  met  with  an 
absolute  rejection  at  the  hands  of  the  political  party  to 
which  he  more  particularly  appealed. 

E.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Hay  30^,  1845. 

MY  DEAE,  FRIEND, — I  have  not  written  for  some  posts, 
having  been  busier  than  usual.  We  have  been  in  a  state  of 
religious  tumult — worse,  I  fancy,  than  anything  during  the 
Catholic  Emancipation  squabble.  My  constituents  have  been 


354  THE  LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

especially  savage.  The  whole  electoral  body,  headed  by  parsons 
(from  Episcopal  to  Ranter),  raged  against  me  for  six  weeks, 
pledging  themselves  never  to  support  me  again,  and  ending  by 
asking  me  to  resign.  The  storm  seems,  however,  to  be  blowing 
over  wonderfully ;  and  by  this  time  next  week  the  Maynooth 
Bill  will  be  law,  and  the  English  people,  submitting  with  their 
usual  good  sense  to  absolute  necessity,  will  probably  forget  all 
about  it.  I  have,  however,  done  the  worst  against  myself  by 
writing  a  libretto  you  shall  have  as  soon  as  I  can  send  it 
without  ruining  you.  The  Duke  de  Broglie  has  been  in  London 
some  time,  and  has  made  himself  so  much  pleasanter  than  he 
does  in  Paris,  that  his  mission  has  been  as  successful  socially  as 
politically.  M.  Guizot  is  getting  all  right.  Thiers  talks  of 
coming  here ;  but  I  fancy  it  is  all  talk.  We  are  amazingly 
proud  of  all  our  mechanical  civilisation,  and  yet  could  not 
prevent  six  persons  being  burned  to  death  in  a  hotel  in  the 
West  End  before  twelve  o'clock  a  few  nights  ago.  It  was  full 
of  persons,  come  up  for  the  Drawing  Room,  and  was  next  door 
to  my  publisher,  Moxon.  I  was  at  his  house  the  morning  after, 
when  a  milliner  came  with  the  Court  dress  of  one  poor  lady  who 
lay  in  cinders.  .  .  .  My  family  are  going  on  well,  though 
my  father  is  easily  knocked  up.  As  for  myself,  I  am  shut  up  in 
a  Railroad  Committee  all  day,  and  likely  to  be  till  the  end  of 
the  Session.  Although  a  great  number  of  railroads  will  be 
thrown  out,  yet  an  enormous  number,  say  one  hundred,  will 
pass ;  and  from  the  employment  of  capital  and  labour  we  may 
anticipate  some  prosperous  years,  after  which,  in  all  probability, 
we  shall  have  a  frightful  reaction.  Did  I  tell  you  Sir  Francis 
Doyle,  who  married  Miss  Wynn,  has  got  a  hard-working 
place  of  £1,000  per  annum,  after  an  immense  amount  of 
asking  from  all  his  friends  ?  The  spring  has  hardly  begun 

here. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

The  storm  at  Pomfret  blew  over,  though  Milnes 
continued   under   suspicion   on  the   part  of  his    ultra 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY   LIFE.  855 

Protestant  constituents.  Next  to  the  burning  question 
of  the  Corn  Laws — the  agitation  against  which  was  now 
at  its  height — the  question  which  most  largely  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  public  at  this  period  was  that  of  the 
extension  of  the  railway  system — a  work  that  was  now 
advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  Milnes,  as  the  heir  to 
a  considerable  estate,  the  value  of  which  could  not  fail 
to  be  affected  by  an  increase  of  the  railway  accommoda- 
tion, had  his  own  personal  interest  in  this  question, 
which  engaged  a  large  portion  of  the  time  of  Parliament, 
and  distracted  the  attention  of  its  members  from  matters 
of  more  purely  political  interest. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Lady  Galway. 

1845. 

Papa  seems  much  better  and  in  good  spirits.  He  prowls 
about  the  committee-rooms,  and  seems  to  amuse  himself.  He 
has  been  once  or  twice  to  play  whist  at  Boodles.  The  Due  de 
Nemours  comes  over  to  dance  the  Minuet  with  the  Queen.*  The 
King  of  the  French  has  lent  all  the  Crown  jewels  to  the  duchess, 
so  she  will  quite  cut  our  Queen  out,  and  even  Lady  Londonderry, 
who  goes  as  Maria  Theresa.  Old  Liverpool  is  very  stiff  on  his 
legs,  but  has  got  a  dancing  mistress.  O'Brien  and  Lord  Exeter 
dance  together  an  hour  every  day.  My  pamphlet,  "  The  Real 
Union  of  England  and  Ireland/'  is  not  worth  the  postage,  as 

can  get  it  for  you.     I  think  it  is  the  best  thing  I  have 

ever  written  in  prose. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.MacCartfy. 

Pall  Mall,  June  26^,  1845. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — Since  my  last  month's  missive  I  have 
been  daily  enclosed  in  a  Railway  Committee,  and  at  this  moment 
have  to  decide  between  the  locomotive  and  atmospheric  systems, 

*  At  the  State  Ball  at  Buckingham  Palace. 


356  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

about  which  I  feel  I  am  no  more  fit  to  judge  than — any  other 
member  of  Parliament.  The  extent  of  railroad  speculation  has 
been  perfectly  awful,  and  the  loss  will  be  proportionate.  The 
lobbies  of  the  House  of  Commons  have  been  like  an  Exchange, 
with  carrier  pigeons  going  off  to  the  City  with  the  decisions  and 
turns  of  Committees.  Mine  has  now  sat  six  weeks,  and  will 
last  ten  days  more.  I  don't  dislike  it  on  the  whole,  having  a 
great  pleasure  in  feeling  myself  an  infinitesimal  wheel  in  this 
world-machine  of  ours.  .  .  .  The  Government  seem  stronger 
than  ever.  The  Maynooth  storm  is  lulled — whether  exhausted 
or  not  remains  to  be  seen.  I  rather  think  not,  and  that  it  will 
break  out  on  the  next  occasion,  though  we  must  set  against  this 
the  usual  sense  of  the  English  people  to  see  when  they  are  beaten. 
The  Bishop  of  St.  David's  made  a  failure  in  the  House  of  Lords 
by  delivering  an  excellent  charge — a  good  essay  and  a  bad 
speech.  The  Times  has  gone  into  open  opposition  to  the  Govern- 
ment on  all  points  except  foreign  policy  :  it  is  conducted  with  most 
spiteful  ability,  and  made  good  use  of,  by  Disraeli.  I  seconded 
Charles  Buller's  motion  against  Lord  Stanley  on  New  Zealand. 
The  case  was  so  good  in  itself,  it  hardly  required  the  very  great 
ability  that  Buller  showed.  The  Government  were  obliged  to 
give  in,  and  promised  everything ;  but  I  fear  the  mismanage- 
ment has  already  gone  so  far  that  great  evil  is  to  be  apprehended. 
What  an  impracticability  to  establish  land  claims  in  a  country 
where  the  land  was  bought  with  sealing-wax,  blankets,  and 
Jews'  harps,  and  where  the  best  native  title  is  to  have  killed  and 
eaten  the  previous  possessor !  I  shall  be  glad  to  find  you  have 
got  over  your  summer  well.  The  weather  here  has  been  very 
hot,  and  the  promise  of  harvest  magnificent — another  year's  lease 
for  the  Corn  Laws. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

He  wrote  to  Carlyle,  proposing  that  he  and  Mrs. 
Carlyle  should  visit  Fryston  during  the  autumn. 


POLITICAL   AND   LITERARY  LIFE.  357 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  July  27th,  1845. 

DEAR  MILNES, — You  are  very  kind  and  good.  Your  note 
will  be  a  pleasure  to  my  little  partner  when  she  receives  it,  as  it 
is  to  me  already,  for  which  be  due  praise  and  thanks  to  all  the 
parties  instrumental  therein.  If  it  please  Heaven,  we  shall  see 
Fryston  one  day  or  other ;  but  the  truth  is,  my  wife  is  off  to 
Lancashire,  to  Wales,  and  the  green  world  a  week  ago ;  and  I 
here  sit  wrestling  and  wriggling  over  the  fag-end  of  "  Cromwell " 
— near  dead  with  it,  and  cannot  stir  anywhither  till  that  be 
done — probably  not  for  a  month  yet.  I  am  then  bound  for 
Scotland,  to  see  my  good  old  mother  once  again  in  this  world. 
Can  yet  set  no  time  for  that  or  anything,  and  do  not  promise 
myself  to  accomplish  any  further  expedition  till  a  new  reason 
come.  Shall  I  not  see  you  again  before  you  go  ?  If  you  had 
a  horse,  and  would  come  and  ride  with  me  some  day,  a  great 
deal  of  pleasant  talk  might  be  accomplished.  But  there  is  no 
use  in  wishing.  May  good  go  with  you  whitherward  soever ! 
This  I  will  wish  for  my  own  private  behoof,  if  for  no  others. 


R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Fryston,  August  12t&,  1845. 

DEAR  FRIEND, —  .  .  .  The  Session  subsided  dully.  I 
should  have  been  glad  to  have  had  the  place  at  the  Board  of 
Control  that  Emerson  Tennent  has  vacated,  but  Sir  Robert  has 
given  it  to  Mahon,  who  astonished  everybody  by  taking  it,  as  he 
had  refused  the  Foreign  Under-Secretaryship  when  the  Tories 
came  in.  Me  Arthur  took  charge  of  a  little  packet  of  books  for 
you,  which  I  hope  will  arrive  safe.  ...  I  took  some  part 
in  the  debate  on  New  Zealand,  in  which  Lord  Stanley  came  out 
very  ill.  It  was  clear  he  had  never  troubled  himself  thoroughly 
to  understand  the  question,  or  had  so  prejudiced  himself  that  he 
could  come  to  no  good  conclusion.  The  Government  were  at 
last  forced  into  justice  by  events,  rather  than  reason.  I  have  no 
large  plans  for  the  autumn  and  winter.  A  visit  to  Tocqueville, 


358  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

in  Normandy,  is  as  much  as  I  shall  accomplish  in  the  foreign 
way.  My  servant  Frederick  has  just  left  me  to  set  up 
for  himself  in  a  public-house  ;  he  will  probably  be  ruined  in 
about  two  years,  and  have  to  return  to  his  old  life,  having 
lost  his  habits  of  service  and  his  good  manners.  My  sister 
goes  on  in  capital  health. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  MlLNES. 

One  of  the  events  of  literary  interest  of  the  time  was 
the  appearance  of  Dickens  as  an  amateur  actor  on  the 

stage. 

Mrs.  Procter  to  R.  M.  M. 

August  9th,  1845. 

MY  DEAR  MB.  MILNKS, — I  am  sadly  disappointed.  I  had 
hoped  to  have  seen  you  before  I  quitted  England,  and  received 
your  blessing.  On  Saturday  next  we  go ;  already  a  large  black 
trunk  has  come  home,  looking  like  a  coffin.  Have  you  heard 
that  Mr.  Dickens  and  Mr.  Forster  are  going  to  act,  at  the 
St.  James's  Theatre,  Every  Man  in  His  Humour — Forster, 
Kitely  (Kean's  part),  and  Dickens,  Bob  Adell?  It  will  be 
in  about  a  mouth.  Mr.  Thackeray  has  offered  to  sing  between 
the  Acts,  but  they  decline  his  services.  This  is  the  only  piece  of 
news  I  have  heard.  When  I  return,  the  latter  end  of  October, 
I  shall  hope  to  find  some  words  from  you,  and — 

Trust  you,  be  it  night  or  day, 
I  shall  receive  it  royally. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  B.  PROCTER. 


R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartly. 

Bawtry,  Christmas  Day,  1845. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — I  cannot  employ  this  day  better  than 
in  wishing  you  a  happy  Christmas,  and  in  expressing  my  sincere 
satisfaction  at  the  contentment  and  health  of  mind  manifested 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY  LIFE.  359 

in  all  your  late  letters.  We  are  back  at  this  house  again,  .my 
father  liking  it  much  better  than  Fryston,  both  for  its  own  sake 
and  for  being  nearer  Serlby.*  I  dreamt  last  night  of  you  and 
Edward  Vavasour  being  here — Alas  !  The  third  Vavasour  has 
come  back  from  New  Zealand,  and  is  not  to  return,  but  to  marry 
Lord  Calvert's  daughter.  .  .  .  You  will  probably  know 
that  Newman  has  joined  the  Church  of  Rome,  taking  about 
thirty  clergy  and  twice  as  many  laymen  with  him,  and  Wiseman 
has  called  on  the  Bishop  of  Paris  to  appoint  solemn  prayers 
for  the  conversion  of  England.  I  fancy  the  Roman  Catholic 
hierarchy  here  must  be  somewhat  embarrassed  how  to  employ 
their  wealth  of  converts,  most  of  them  active  intelligent  men 
who  have  come  to  the  Roman  Church  for  the  ideal  they  could 
not  find  in  the  Anglican,  and  who  are  not  susceptible  to  the 
usual  temptations  of  hierarchical  ambition.  Newman  has  pub- 
lished a  very  learned  subtle  book  on  the  developments  of 
Christianity  in  the  Roman  Church,  quite  throwing  over  the 
notion  that  the  Church  of  Rome  does  not  add  to  the  Apostolic 
teaching,  and  distinctly  avowing  that  the  Real  Presence  and  the 
deification  of  the  Virgin  (his  phrase)  are  doctrines  revealed  in 
later  times  by  the  Church.  We  have  had  a  quantity  of  political 
jugglery  the  last  fortnight.  Peel  proposed  something  to  his 
Cabinet,  on  which  they  outvoted  him.  He  resigned ;  the  Queen 
sent  for  John  Russell,  who  ten  days  before  had  declared 
himself  a  Leaguer  on  the  corn  question.  He  was  a  week  in 
forming  his  Government,  and,  having  settled  to  do  so,  sent  for 
the  new  Lord  Grey  to  offer  him  the  Colonial  Office.  Lord  Grey 
said  he  must  first  know  whether  Palmerston  was  to  have  the 
Foreign  Office,  and  being  told  he  was,  declined  serving  in  the 
Cabinet  altogether.  Lord  John,  disgusted,  threw  up  the  whole 
matter;  Peel  returned  to  office,  summoned  his  old  colleagues, 
offered  to  make  it  up ;  they  or  he  came  to  terms,  except  Stanley, 
and  they  are  all  in  again,  with  Gladstone  in  Stanley's  place. 
It  is  assumed  (I  think  gratuitously)  that  Peel  is  going  to  repeal 
the  Corn  Laws,  and  on  this  agriculturists  are  raving  about,  and 

*  The  residence  of  Lady  Galway. 


360  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

the  Carlton  has  become  a  den  of  scorpions.  I  am  a  moderate 
Protectionist,  and  thus  shall  please  neither  party ;  via  media 
never  answers  in  politics,  and  somehow  or  other  I  never  can  get 
out  of  it.  My  Laodicean  spirit  is  the  ruin  of  ine.  From  having 
lived  with  all  sorts  of  people,  and  seen  good  in  all,  the  broad 
black  lines  of  judgment  that  people  usually  draw  seem  to  me 
false  and  foolish,  and  I  think  my  own  finer  ones  just  as  distinct, 
though  no  one  can  see  them  but  myself.  They  have  just  done 
me  the  honour  of  reprinting  my  poems  in  Boston.  I  have  not 
yet  seen  the  edition,  though  a  copy  is  lying  at  my  rooms  in 
London.  By-the-bye,  you  had  better  direct  Carlton  Club,  Pall 
Mall,  for  the  future,  as  I  am  not  sure  that  I  continue  my 
lodgings.  .  .  .  Carlyle's  "Cromwell"  is  a  valuable  book, 
fanatical  as  its  hero  at  least 
God  bless  you. 

Milnes's  prospects  in  the  political  world  were  not  at 
this  time  bright.  He  had  again  been  disappointed  in 
his  justifiable  expectation  of  office,  Peel  having  once 
more  passed  him  over.  This,  however,  was  a  dis- 
appointment to  which  he  may  almost  be  said  to  have 
become  accustomed.  There  were  other  and  more 
serious  causes  of"  dissatisfaction  with  his  position  in 
Parliament  and  in  public  life,  and  these  weighed  upon 
his  spirits.  He  found  that  he  was  no  longer  in 
sympathy  with  that  Conservative  party  to  which  his 
father  was  so  deeply  attached,  and  yet  at  the  same 
time  he  knew  that  upOD  many  points  he  differed  widely 
from  the  members  of  the  opposite  party.  He  had 
quarrelled  with  the  Nonconformists  on  the  question  of 
Maynooth.  He  was  prepared  to  quarrel  with  the  Pro- 
tectionists on  the  question  of  the  Corn  Laws.  A  letter 
which,  in  the  spring  of  this  year,  he  had  addressed  to 


POLITICAL   AND    LITERARY  LIFE.  361 

his  father,  at  a  time  when  a  project  was  on  foot  for 
securing  him  as  Conservative  candidate  for  North  Not- 
tinghamshire, throws  light  upon  the  position  in  which 
he  stood. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

March  3rd,  1845. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, — I  am  glad  you  gave  up  all  thoughts 
of  my  representing  North  Notts.  In  the  present  state  of 
things  I  would  rather  be  out  of  Parliament  altogether  than 
represent  any  county,  except  the  West  Riding  ;  for,  in  truth,  in 
this  and  coming  contests  between  the  towns  and  the  country, 
all  my  feelings  are  with  the  towns,  and  would  have  been  so  all 
the  time  that  the  old  municipalities  fought  and  beat  the  feudal 
system.  You  say,  the  towns  may  pass  and  the  land  rests. 
What  is  Italy  without  Rome,  what  Syria  without  Jerusalem, 
what  Egypt  without  Thebes  and  Alexandria  ? 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

A  few  months  after  the  above  letter  was  written 
Milnes  suffered  what  was  a  real  blow  to  his  political 
aspirations.  The  post  which  of  all  others  he  coveted 
in  the  Government,  and  for  which  he  was  unquestionably 
best  fitted,  became  vacant,  and  he  was  again  passed 
over.  His  disappointment  was  severe. 

R.  M.  M.  to  W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Private.  Bawtry,  Jan.  \4eth,  1846. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE, — I  hear  that  Lord  Canning  has 
resigned  the  Under-Secretaryship  for  Foreign  Affairs.  It  is  no 
secret  to  those  who  have  in  any  way  interested  themselves  in 
my  welfare  that  I  have  aimed  at  occupying  that  post,  and  I 
have  aspired  to  it  because  I  believe  myself — I  trust,  without 
presumption — better  fitted  for  it  by  my  special  reading  and 


362  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

personal  observation  than  my  contemporaries  generally,  who  take 
little  or  no  interest  in  foreign  politics,  and  because  I  thought 
that  with  Sir  Robert  Peel  at  hand  to  conduct  matters  of  primary 
importance  in  the  House  of  Commons  my  very  slender  Par- 
liamentary ability  might  be  sufficient  for  the  purpose.  I  have 
now  for  near  nine  years  earnestly,  conscientiously,  and  indepen- 
dently, in  and  out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  with  voice  and 
with  pen,  supported  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  his  policy ;  and  though 
no  one  can  think  more  humbly  than  I  do  of  the  absolute  value 
of  that  support,  yet  relatively  to  others  I  may  remember  with 
satisfaction  that  I  have  never  been  tempted  into  personal  dis- 
respect or  political  faction  by  the  bait  of  immediate  Parlia- 
mentary success  or  electoral  popularity.  If,  therefore,  Sir 
Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Aberdeen  confer  this  office  on  any  other 
member  of  Parliament  of  lower  Parliamentary  standing  than 
myself,  I  am  compelled  to  take  it  as  an  intimation  of  their 
opinion  of  my  inability  to  share  the  public  service  in  any  depart- 
ment, and  to  prepare  myself  to  act  upon  that  belief.  Of  all  the 
moral  difficulties  I  have  encountered  in  my  intercourse  with  the 
world,  I  have  suffered  far  the  most  from  the  problem  of  recon- 
ciling that  self-respect,  without  which  public  life  is  disgraceful, 
and  that  desire  of  effecting  some  practical  good  in  one's  genera- 
tion, without  which  it  is  useless,  with  an  entire  freedom  from 
selfish  motives  ;  and  knowing  with  what  subtlety  evil  influences 
work  upon  the  spirit,  I  own  I  dread  the  effect  that  a  sense  of 
personal  injustice  may  have  on  my  decision  of  questions  likely 
soon  to  be  brought  before  every  member  of  Parliament,  and  to 
the  consideration  of  which  I  had  hoped  to  bring  a  mind  un- 
touched by  bitter  feelings.  Of  course  I  do  not  ask  you  to 
interfere  with  the  departments  of  other  Ministers;  but,  I 
confess,  it  would  be  grateful  to  me  if,  through  the  pure  channel 
of  your  friendship,  the  plain  facts  of  this  note  reached  Sir 
Robert  Peel.  The  kindly  intercourse  with  which  he  honoured 
me  when  in  Opposition  has,  probably  of  necessity,  been  so 
remitted  of  late  years  that  it  would  be  impertinent  in  me  to 
approach  him  on  any  footing  of  intimacy,  and  I  cannot  make 


POLITICAL    AND   LITERARY   LIFE.  363 

a   direct  application   on    a    subject    which  appears  to  be  my 
individual  advantage,  but  which  is  really  the  resolution  of  the 
question — whether  I  can  do  any  good  to  others,   or  improve 
myself,  by  remaining  any  longer  in  public  life. 
I  am,  my  dear  friend, 

Yours  very  truly  and  obliged, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

There  is  no  need  to  offer  one  word  in  defence  of  the 
tone  of  the  foregoing  letter,  nor  will  any  one  who 
knew  the  writer  at  that  period  in  his  life  feel  that  the 
consciousness  which  he  displayed  of  his  fitness  for  the 
post  to  which  he  aspired  was  not  amply  justified.  A 
later  generation  which  knew  Lord  Houghton  in  another 
phase  of  his  varied  life,  and  which  associated  him 
rather  with  the  social  and  literary  than  with  the 
political  interests  of  his  country,  may  possibly  feel 
passing  surprise  at  the  fact  that  he  should  have  thus 
earnestly  insisted  upon  his  right  to  take  an  important 
post  in  the  Government  of  his  country.  But  no  such 
surprise  would  have  been  felt  by  his  contemporaries.  This 
letter  of  Jan.  14th  may  be  said  to  have  marked  the 
turning-point  in  his  life.  If  Sir  Eobert  Peel  had  put 
aside  the  prejudice  which  he  entertained  against  the 
admission  of  men  of  letters  into  the  official  ring,  and 
had  frankly  recognised  the  claims  of  one  for  whom  he 
had  professed,  at  one  time,  a  warm  friendship  and 
admiration,  the  career  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir 
might  have  been  altogether  different  from  what  it  was ; 
and  those  who  knew  him  best  will  feel  most  confident 
that,  in  such  a  case,  he  would  have  justified  the  hopes 
of  his  friends  and  of  the  outer  world. 


364  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  ;  the  coveted  door  was  closed 
in  his  face,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  from  that 
time  forward,  whilst  Milnes  continued  to  display  as  keen 
and  intelligent  an  interest  as  he  had  ever  done  in  the 
politics  of  his  country,  and  above  all  in  those  questions 
which  affected  our  relations  with  other  Powers,  there 
was  a  shadow  upon  his  own  Parliamentary  career  which 
never  wholly  passed  away. 

Milnes's  disappointment  at  finding  that  he  was  once 
more  passed  over  was  not  lessened  by  the  fact  that  the 
person  who  was  preferred  to  himself  was  Mr.  George 
Smythe,  afterwards  Lord  Strangford,  with  whom  his 
personal  relations  were  not  altogether  cordial,  and 
who  had  entered  into  something  like  a  rivalry  with  him 
in  the  field  of  foreign  politics. 

R.  M.  M.  to  W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Private.  Bawtry,  Jan.  19^,  1846. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE, — When  I  wrote  to  you,  I  was  not 
aware  that  Mr.  Smythe  had  obtained  the  Under-Secretaryship, 
though  I  heard  it  was  probable  he  might  do  this.  Under  the 
circumstances,  you  have  done  for  me  all  I  could  desire. 
If  the  subject  ever  comes  up  again,  I  should  be  glad  Sir  Robert 
Peel  should  know  that  I  entirely  demur  to  the  expression  of 
"  candidate  for  office  "  as  applied  to  myself.  I  am,  fortunately, 
in  no  need  either  of  the  emolument  or  reputation  of  place.  I 
have  never  thought  of  the  subject  except  as  a  means  of  usefulness 
and  activity,  nor  regretted  the  want  of  it  except  from  a  convic- 
tion that  my  difficulty  in  making  my  way  in  the  House  of 
Commons  was  immeasurably  increased  by  the  very  fair  assump- 
tion that  I  was  not  fit  to  take  up  the  time  of  the  House  if  those 
who  knew  me  best  thought  me  incapable  of  mixing  in  public 
affairs,  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever  complained  to  you  or  any  one 


POLITICAL    AND    LITERARY  LIFE.  365 

else  of  having  been  passed  over  in  1841,  nor  should  I  have  now 
dreamt  of  occupying  you  or  Sir  Robert  Peel  with  so  unimportant 
a  matter  had  I  not  taken  especial  pains  to  render  myself  fit  for 
that  particular  department.  Lord  Aberdeen  certainly  told  me, 
unasked,  that  he  had  invincible  objections  against  having  a 
representative  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which  I  suppose  he 
would  not  have  volunteered  to  do  except  with  an  application  to 
myself,  and  I  hardly  think  he  would  have  shown  the  present 
preference  had  he  known  the  several  circumstances.  I  am  not 
ashamed  to  confess  myself  thoroughly  disappointed.  I  am  forced 
to  look  to  new  objects  of  thought,  to  new  subjects  of  observation. 
No  ingenuity  could  have  made  the  blow  more  provoking  from 
the  hands  of  the  man  to  whom  I  have  shown  the  most  public 
respect,  through  those  of  the  one  for  whom  I  entertain  the  most 
private  dislike.  But  in  morals,  as  in  physics,  if  well  used,  the 
bitter  braces.  Your  kindness  and  good-will  I  shall  never  forget. 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

CHANGE      OP      VIEW  S. 

The  Crisis  of  Protection — Letter  to  Guizot — Peel's  Retirement — Milnes  joins  the 
Liberal  Party — Death  of  his  Mother — Letter  from  Robert  Browning — Carlyle 
in  Yorkshire — W.  E.  Forster — Friendship  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington — 
A  Characteristic  Letter — Visit  to  the  Peninsula — Withdrawal  from  the 
Carlton  Club — "Events  of  1848" — Dispute  with  Mr.  George  Smythe — 
Challenges  Him — Extracts  from  Commonplace  Book — Louis  Philippe  and 
Milnes — Lord  Malmesbury's  Mis-statement. 

THE  country  was  now  at  the  most  critical  stage  of  the 
great  struggle  upon  the  Corn  Laws.  Milnes,  as  the 
reader  has  seen,  had  frankly  avowed  to  his  father  that 
in  any  contest  between  the  towns  and  the  counties — or, 
in  other  words,  between  the  manufacturing  and  agri- 
cultural interests — his  own  sympathies  would  compel  him 
to  take  the  side  of  the  former.  It  was  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  he  was  among  those  Conservatives  who 
awaited  with  intense  anxiety  the  action  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  hoping  almost  against  hope  that,  in  view  of  the 
serious  and  threatening  condition  of  things  which  had 
arisen  in  the  country,  he  would  cast  all  considerations 
of  mere  party  upon  one  side,  and  boldly  take  the  only 
course  by  which  the  nation  could  be  saved  from  impend- 
ing disaster.  The  keen  personal  disappointment  which 
he  had  suffered  by  the  refusal  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  to  give 
him  the  post  he  had  coveted  had  no  effect  upon  him  so 
far  as  his  political  action  was  concerned,  and  he  refused 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  367 

to  allow  himself  to  be  drawn  into  the  schemes  and 
intrigues  of  that  section  of  the  Conservative  party 
which  was  now  in  almost  open  revolt  against  the  Prime 
Minister. 

On  December  4th,  1845,  the  Times  had  startled  the 
world  by  the  announcement  that  at  the  commencement 
of  the  Session  Ministers  would  recommend  an  immediate 
Gonsideration  of  the  Corn  Laws,  with  a  view  to  their 
total  repeal,  and,  though  indignant  denial  had  been  forth- 
coming, there  was  a  wide-spread  belief  that  the  announce- 
ment was  founded  upon  fact.  Peel  had  found  his 
difficulties  with  his  party  and  his  Ministry  so  grave  that 
he  had  placed  his  resignation  in  the  hands  of  the  Queen 
on  December  5th,  and  he  only  now  remained  in  office 
because  of  Lord  John  Eussell's  inability  to  form  a 
Government  to  take  the  place  of  his  own.  In  circum- 
stances at  once  so  confused  and  so  critical,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  opening  of  the  Session  of  Parliament 
was  awaited  throughout  the  country  with  the  keenest 
interest. 

According  to  his  wont  during  many  years,  Milnes 
wrote  to  M.  Guizot  to  explain,  as  far  as  might  be,  to  the 
French  Minister  the  situation  in  England. 

R.  M.  M.  to  M.  Guizot. 

Jan.  \1th,  1846. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  have  not  written  to  you  for  so  long  that  I 
hardly  know  how  to  begin.  I  should,  indeed,  have  made  the 
attempt  to  throw  some  gleam  of  light  on  the  confused  political 
circumstances  of  the  last  month,  but  I  was  restrained  by  the 
consciousness  that  I  could  add  very  little,  if  anything,  to  the 
news  you  were  daily  receiving,  and  that  I  should  not  be  justified 


368  (THE   LIFE   OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

in  taking  up  your  precious  time  in  conjectures,  gossip,  and  sus- 
picions. Now  all  is  settled  for  the  moment,  and  the  country 
waits  on  tiptoe  for  the  22nd — not,  indeed,  silent,  but  with  a  deep 
undercurrent  of  discontent  and  querulous  anger.  I  have  been 
in  the  country  for  some  time,  and  have  seen  the  working  of 
men's  minds  in  different  parts.  It  is  undeniable  that  people 
talk  in  a  very  different  way  about  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Law 
from  what  they  would  have  done  six  months  ago.  The  defiant 
party  is  certainly  small,  and  the  agriculturists  generally  so 
totally  without  organisation  or  union  of  purpose  that  they  really 
seem  at  Peers  mercy.  All  parties  will,  I  think,  meet  Parliament 
in  a  creditable  position  except  those  gentlemen  whoso  far  differed 
from  Sir  Robert  as  to  break  up  his  Cabinet  and  throw  the  country 
into  a  political  crisis,  and  then  came  back  again  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  It  is  possible  Sir  Robert  Peel  made  some  concession 
to  them,  but  he  has  such  a  reputation  for  persisting  in  his  own 
way  that  nobody  believes  it.  For  myself,  I  am  rather  in  a 
fortunate  position,  never  having  taken  up  any  high  Protection 
grounds  with  my  constituents,  and  having  pressed  a  lower  scale 
upon  Sir  Robert's  attention  in  1842. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  fundamental  reason  of  Lord  John's 
incapacity  to  form  a  Cabinet  was  that  he  could  get  no  distinct 
promise  of  support  in  his  Free  Trade  measures  from  Sir  R.  Peel. 
Graham  seemed  more  willing  to  enter  into  an  engagement ;  but 
as  the  Whigs  could  not  muster  more  than  251  votes,  Lord 
John  was  too  delighted  to  make  Lord  Grey  a  scapegoat  and  get 
well  out  of  it.*  It  would  certainly  have  been  much  more  con- 
venient for  Sir  Robert  Peel  that  Lord  John  should  have  proposed 
his  "  total  repeal,"  and  then  to  have  brought  forward  his  own 
scheme  as  a  Conservative  amendment  and  mitigation  of  Whig 
rashness,  than  to  have  to  bring  it  forward  as  an  integral  measure, 
disgusting  to  his  friends  and  unsatisfactory  to  his  opponents. 

The  last  number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  contains  a  short 

*  Lord  John  Russell's  attempt  to  form  a  Cabinet  in  the  previous  month 
had  been  frustrated  by  Lord  Grey's  refusal  to  take  office  if  Lord 
Palinerston  became  Foreign  Secretary. 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  369 

article  of  mine  on  the  political  state  of  Prussia.  It  comes  out 
at  an  unfortunate  moment  here,  as  people  are  too  anxious  to 
read  anything;  and,  from  the  last  news,  that  unhappy  King 
seems  to  have  resolved  on  a  line  of  policy  which  will  require 
something  stronger  than  pamphlets  to  alter.  I  earnestly  wish 
the  foolish  question  of  our  recognition  of  Algeria  could  be  once 
well  settled ;  since  the  Sultan's  reception  of  the  Duke  of 
Montpensier,  I  cannot  conceive  what  difficulty  there  can  be. 
M.  Thiers  must  have  completely  incapacitated  himself  from  any 
further  abuse  of  the  "  entente  cordiale "  by  the  friendly  pro- 
fessions he  lavished  on  all  of  us  during  his  visit  to  England ; 
and  the  respectful  manner  in  which  he  spoke  of  the  King  and 
yourself  gave  me  the  impression  that  he  did  not  contemplate 
any  very  vigorous  opposition  to  the  Government.  With  kind 
remembrances  to  all  your  excellent  family,  and  best  wishes  for 
the  New  Year, 

Believe  me 

Yours  always  and  obliged, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

Parliament  met  on  the  22nd,  the  Queen  opening  the 
Session  in  person,  and  the  long-expected  declaration  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel  was  made.  It  practically  amounted  to 
the  announcement  of  his  own  conversion  to  the  Free 
Trade  doctrines  which  had  so  long  been  preached  in 
vain  by  Cobden  and  Bright ;  and  it  gave  Mr.  Disraeli 
the  chance,  for  which  he  had  during  many  Sessions  been 
waiting  patiently,  of  putting  himself  forward  as  the 
most  powerful  and  implacable  antagonist  of  the  Minister 
who  had  failed  to  recognise  his  genius.  Milnes,  though 
he  sought  to  devise  a  method  of  reconciliation  between 
the  Protectionists  and  their  old  leader,  steadily  refused 
to  be  drawn  into  the  camp  in  which  Disraeli  was  now 
the  virtual  chief. 


S70  TEE   LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

fl.  H.  M.  to  his  Father. 

(?  March,  1846.) 

MY  DEAR  FATHER — In  this  "  bouleversement"  anybody  is  in 
a  position  for  anything ;  and  I  really  could  not  bring  myself 
to  support  Siy  Robert  unconditionally,  any  more  than  to  go  with 
the  Protectionists.  I  am  not  under  the  faintest  shadow  of  a 
pledge  to  Pomfret,  and,  even  if  I  were,  I  had  better  eat  my  own 
words  now  at  the  general  banquet,  than  live  on  that  food  for 
the  rest  of  my  life. 

O'B/s  speech  was  the  most  successful  thing  I  have  heard  in 
the  House  of  Commons ;  it  was  no  cleverer  than  I  knew  him  to 
be  before,  but  it  was  the  first  time  the  House  found  it  out ;  and 
then  his  sentimentality  suited  at  once  the  interests  of  his  party 
and  the  tone  of  the  debate. 

I  never  heard  anything  like  the  howl  when  Graham 
"  disposed "  of  everything  he  had  formerly  said.  Your  old 
friend  Goulburn  looks  most  wretched,  and  G.  Bentinck  has  been 
mauling  him  this  morning. 

Our  political  Verwirrung  [he  writes  to  MacCarthy,  March  1 6, 
1846]  continues  as  wild  as  ever;  all  combinations  are  possible — 
Peel  and  Cobden,  Lord  John  and  the  High  Tories ;  anything  after 
an  election,  or  even  before.  Peel  has  behaved  to  his  party  as 
Washington  did  to  the  old  horse  that  had  borne  him  through  all 
his  battles — sold  him  ;  but  sold  them  to  the  country.  He  is 
acting  with  a  rash  courage  and  singleness  of  object  unlike  his 
whole  life,  making  probabilities  futile  and  calculations  impossible. 
The  Lords  will  probably  carry  the  measure  by  about  30.  I 
tried  to  come  in  as  a  mediator,  and  proposed  a  low  duty  and  to 
let  1849  provide  for  itself,  but  both  extremities  were  too  strong  ; 
and  I  got  so  little  encouragement  that  I  withdrew  the  motion, 
after  a  flare-up.  The  Protectionists,  though  beaten,  will  still 
remain  a  powerful  party — not  strong  enough  to  form  a  Govern- 
ment themselves,  but  able  to  cripple  and  weaken  every  other, 
resting  as  they  do  on  the  strong  basis  of  the  prejudices  and  the 
ignorance  of  the  community.  All  my  family  are  going  on 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  371 

thrivingly ;  my  father  a  decided  Protectionist,  and  proposing 
the  member  for  the  county  in  a  brilliant  Philippic  against  Peel, 
while  I  am  supporting  him  ;  but  as  Sir  T.  Acland  and  Tom 
went  different  ways,  what  might  not  be  expected  ?  O'Brien  * 
is  mating  the  most  of  his  occasion  ;  the  country  party  are  so 
thankful  for  his  glitter  and  grace  to  shed  over  their  dull  sobriety 
that  he  is  invaluable  to  them.  We  Peel-servatives  are  for  the 
moment  in  an  awkward  position,  which,  however,  will  right 
itself.  I  only  wish  I  liked  or  reverenced  the  man  himself ;  but 
I  cannot  do  it,  though  I  try  very  hard,  and  write  and  speak  in 
puff  of  him.  The  American  matter f  looks  better.  Polk  has 
sent  here  a  clever  new  Secretary  of  Legation,  a  stump  orator  of 
the  first  order.  He  told  us  the  other  morning  that  the  war 
between  us  would  last  thirty  years ;  that  they  made  up  their 
minds  to  have  every  flag  swept  from  the  ocean,  and  all  the  great 
cities  destroyed ;  and  that  only  after  that  would  the  war  really 
begin. 

The  Corn  Bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  15th  of  May  by  a  majority  of  98  votes,  and  was  at 
once  sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords,  where  the  Peers 
accepted  it  without  any  very  strenuous  opposition.  On 
the  day  of  the  triumph  of  the  Grovernment  in  the  Lower 
House,  Milnes  wrote  again  to  his  friend. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

May  \5th,  1846. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — All  the  row  of  London,  and  the  repeal  of 
the  Corn  Law,  and  the  probable  change  of  Government,  cannot 
excuse  me  from  delaying  any  longer  to  give  you  a  letter,  and, 
indeed,  I  cannot  plead  any  great  occupation  or  agreeable  life  as 
an  apology  for  a  longer  silence  than  usual ;  but  somehow  or 
other  the  multiplicity  of  small  events  in  London  is  a  great 
impediment  to  writing  to  a  distance.  One  feels  a  continual 

*  Augustus  Stafford  O'Brien.  f  Oregon  question. 


372  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

desire  to  integrate  one's  life,  and  then  perhaps  one  might  have 
something1  worth  telling.  Nothing  can  be  well  uupleasanter 
than  the  course  of  political  events — at  least,  to  a  man  of  any 
sensibility.  The  Government — that  is,  in  fact,  Sir  Robert  Peel — 
has  been  led  on  by  a  series  of  accidents  into  a  perfect  quagmire 
of  political  action.  The  words  treason  and  treachery,  so  freely 
applied  to  it,  are  not  the  right  ones,  but  the  whole  transaction 
has  indisputably  that  appearance.  Peel  seems  in  the  hard 
dilemma  of  having  deceived  his  supporters  for  the  last  five 
years,  or  of  having  foreseen  nothing,  and  trusted  himself,  without 
will  or  conduct,  to  the  current  of  popular  opinion.  The  truth 
probably  comprises  both  faults  ;  and  the  result  certainly  is  that 
I  have  lost  my  confidence  in  his  prudence  and  management  of 
men,  and  look  upon  him  with  a  sort  of  compassion  for  his 
reckless  honesty,  a  quality  of  all  others  disagreeable  in  a  political 
leader.  My  own  impression  is  (and  in  this  I  am  very  singular) 
that  he  will  struggle  through  the  Session  one  way  or  other. 
The  hardest  tussle  will  no  doubt  be  upon  sugar,  and  there  all 
his  new  Free  Trade  talk  will  tell  against  him.  I  took  advantage 
of  the  moment  to  get  your  brother  into  a  public  office,  which  I 
hope  he  will  like,  and  that  it  will  like  him.  Gladstone  has  not 
yet  got  a  seat  in  Parliament,  and  I  fancy  the  Colonies  cannot 
much  longer  like  to  go  on  unrepresented — a  Secretary  of  State 
out  of  Parliament  for  five  months  of  the  Session,  and  with  no 
Under-Secretary  in  Parliament,  is  an  anomaly  even  in  these 
days.  Palmerston  has  made  a  most  judicious  visit  to  Paris,  and 
was  very  civilly  entreated  by  all  parties  there.  He  talked 
"entente  cordiale "  in  very  decent  French,  and  his  wife  showed 
the  French  the  best  specimen  of  an  English  lady  of  fashion.  Of 
course  he  makes  more  of  their  civilities  than  was  exactly 
intended,  but  there  is  no  great  harm  in  that.  "  The  Modern 
Timon"  is  evidently  Bulwer's,  though  he  denies  it  to  his  most 
intimate  friends.  I  suspect  you  read  the  best  bits  ;  for  to  such 
an  idolater  of  form  as  you  are,  the  whole  would  be  very  dis- 
agreeable. I  never  saw  a  poem  with  so  much  agreeable  sentiment 
and  such  clumsy  uncomfortable  diction.  There  is  a  good  novel, 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  373 

called  " Emilia  Wyndham,"  by  a  Mrs.  Marsh;  you  will  pro- 
bably get  it  in  an  American  newspaper  for  five  cents.  Nobody 
seems  to  anticipate  war  with  the  United  States.  One  does  not  see 
exactly  why,  but  there  is  a  conviction  that  the  peace  party  there 
will  be  able  to  prevent  events  coming  to  extremities.  I  hope 
soon  to  have  Sir  T.  Freemantle  Chairman  of  the  Customs,  and 
then  shall  seriously  set  about  getting  you  removed  to  something 
better  than  the  exile  you  have  borne  so  well.  God  bless  you ! 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

It  was  whilst  Parliament  was  absorbed  in  this  great 
struggle  that  Milnes  himself  took  the  first  step  in  a 
work  which  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  engaged  much 
of  his  time  and  thought.  This  was  the  introduction  of 
a  Bill  for  the  establishment  of  Reformatories  for  juve- 
nile offenders.  The  proposal  was  scoffed  at  by  many 
politicians  of  eminence  when  it  was  first  put  forward. 
To  them  it  seemed  to  be  an  emanation  of  the  poet's 
imagination,  rather  than  the  reasonable  proposal  of  a 
practical  man.  But  Milnes  had  not  simulated  that 
interest  in  the  most  forlorn  class  of  our  population 
which  he  had  expressed  in  his  poems.  He  was  con- 
vinced that  legislation  might  do  much  to  dam  at  its 
source  the  stream  of  social  sewage  by  which  the  great 
ocean  of  crime  was  being  fed ;  and  in  spite  of  many 
rebuffs  he  persevered  with  his  proposal,  until  he  had  the 
great  happiness  of  seeing  Reformatories  established 
under  the  sanction  of  the  law,  and  of  becoming  himself 
the  president  of  the  first  and  greatest  of  these  noble 
institutions — that  at  Red  Hill.  The  reader  will  find  in 
the  subsequent  course  of  this  narrative  but  few  traces  of 


374  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD   BOUQHTON. 

Milnes's  work  in  this  direction.  It  was  something  to  be 
done  rather  than  talked  or  written  about.  But  side  by 
side  with  his  curious  and  fascinating  social  life,  with  his 
breakfast-parties  in  Pall  Mall,  his  appearances  at  Holland 
and  Lansdowne  houses,  his  constant  visits  to  the  Con- 
tinent, his  literary  labours  and  friendships,  and  all  the 
thousand  and  one  features  which  gave  such  fulness  to 
his  social  life,  there  went  on,  hardly  noticed  by  the 
outer  world,  another  life  of  steady,  earnest,  and  unselfish 
labour  on  behalf  of  a  class  who  had  been  too  long  the 
victims  of  p  iblic  neglect. 

Milnes's  staunch  friendship  for  MacCarthy  led  him 
constantly  to  seek  means  of  serving  his  absent  friend, 
nor  was  he  unsuccessful,  for  it  was  not  very  long  after 
he  had  written  the  above  letter  that  he  secured  for 
MacCarthy  the  promise  of  a  better  post  in  that  island  of 
Ceylon  of  which  he  eventually  became  Governor.  His 
forecast  as  to  the  fate  of  Ministers  in  the  Session  was 
not  realised.  They  did,  indeed,  carry  their  Corn  Bill, 
in  spite  of  all  opposition,  but  it  was  only  to  be  defeated 
on  an  Irish  Coercion  Bill  through  a  combination  of  Pro- 
tectionists, Whigs,  Radicals,  and  Irish  members.  It 
was  the  vote  of  his  old  supporters,  however,  which  turned 
the  balance,  and  led  to  the  fall  of  the  great  Minister, 
whose  place  was  taken  by  Lord  John  Russell. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

26,  Pall  Mall,  July  15^,  1846. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — I  have  waited  longer  than  usual  in 
answering  your  letter.  .  .  .  The  Peel  Government  closed 
dramatically.  The  same  night  the  Lords  passed  the  Corn  Bill 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  875 

they  were  placed  in  a  great  minority  in  the  Commons.  The  new 
Government  has  come  in  without  an  effort ;  their  members  have 
been  re-elected  nearly  without  opposition.  If  they  act  prudently, 
they  have  such  a  chance  as  no  Administration  has  ever  had 
before.  Their  line  is  plainly  to  get  rid  of  the  old  Whig  reputa- 
tion of  being  bad  men  of  business ;  to  avoid  needless  affronts, 
even  to  prejudices  ;  and  to  fall — if  it  must  be  so — among  the 
ruins  of  some  great  abuse.  I  have  had  little  part  lately  in  any 
public  matter,  and  have  contented  myself  with  a  letter  to  my 
constituents,  giving  my  reasons  for  intending  to  give  Lord  John 
a  fair  independent  support.  The  House  wears  the  strangest 
aspect ;  the  High  Protectionists  sitting  with  the  Radicals,  and 
Sir  R.  Inglis  shouldering  J.oseph  Hume.  The  new  appoint- 
ments are  good  on  the  whole.  Buller,  Ward,  Hawes,  &c.,  are  a 
great  infusion  of  popular  intelligence ;  and  but  for  the  old  Whig 
leaven  of  three  Pagets,  and  three  Howards,  and  three  Greys,  and 
some  dandies,  it  would  be  the  ablest  Administration  collected  for 
many  years.  My  health  has  not  been  what  it  should  be ;  I  have 
been  troubled  with  all  the  symptoms  of  the  gouty  diathesis,  and 
I  think  of  running  to  Carlsbad  as  soon  as  I  can  get  away  from 
town.  My  family  have  all  been  at  Brighton  (which  is  now  a 
suburb  of  London)  for  the  last  three  months :  all  well  on  the 
whole.  The  heat  has  been  so  savage  that  not  only  we  Italians, 
but  the  East  Indians,  have  suffered  much  from  it.  I  never  knew 
hot  nights  so  oppressive  and  hot  days  so  little  agreeable.  We 
have  no  new  books  worth  regarding — Grote's  "  History  of 
Greece  "  the  only  real  acquisition,  and  that  written  so  as  to  give 
much  offence  to  purists  in  language,  and  some  to  purists  in 
religion.  The  only  lion  in  the  way  of  literature  has  been 
Grafin  Hahn-Hahn,  a  plain  woman  with  one  eye,  but  so  intelligent 
and  light  in  hand  that  she  won  favour  in  all  eyes,  although 
encumbered  with  a  Reisegefdhrte,  whose  name  she  did  not  bear, 
and  who  was  thus  difficult  to  place  in  an  intelligible  position  in 
England.  The  barbarian  Ibrahim  Pasha  has  been  about  for 
two  months,  and  has  been  much  feted.  They  make  him  say 
rather  a  pretty  thing : — "  In  France  I  saw,  and  was  received  by, 


376  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

the  Court;  here  I  see,  and  am  received  by,  the  people/'  It  is 
not  known  who  made  this  for  him.  The  old  Pasha  is  so  jealous 
of  him  that  he  is  gone  to  Constantinople  to  show  that  he  can  get 
feted  too.  My  next  will  probably  be  from  Germany.  Till  then, 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

I  have  given  Milnes's  observations  of  the  political 
crisis  at  somewhat  unusual  length,  because  of  the  effect 
which  the  political  changes  he  records  had  upon  his  own 
position.  He  had  never,  even  in  his  earliest  days,  been 
a  strong  Conservative  at  heart.  To  no  man  was  the 
falsehood  of  extremes  more  distasteful ;  and  throughout 
his  political  career  he  had  shown  himself  to  be  singularly 
independent  of  mere  party  considerations  or  obligations. 
He  now  practically  severed  himself  from  his  old  political 
connections ;  but  as  I  have  revealed  the  keen  disap- 
pointment which  he  experienced  when  he  was  passed 
over  by  Sir  Robert  Peel  in  December,  1845,  it  is  bare 
justice  to  him  to  point  out  that  in  leaving  the  Conserva- 
tive ranks,  and  in  ranging  himself  under  the  flag  of  the 
Liberal  Prime  Minister,  he  gave  no  one  the  slightest 
pretext  for  alleging  that  personal  pique  had  influenced 
him.  Whilst  Peel  was  in  office,  he  was  true  to  him, 
even  though  the  majority  of  his  supporters  had  rebelled. 
His  resignation,  and  the  complete  break-up  of  the  old 
Protectionist  party,  gave  all  his  followers  an  opportunity 
of  reconsidering  their  position.  There  were  some  dis- 
tinguished men  whose  loyalty  to  Peel  was  characterised 
by  a  personal  devotion  which  would  have  led  them  to 
follow  him  even  although  they*  had  done  so  utterly 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  377 

alone.  Milnes  was  not  one  of  these  ;  his  correspondence 
shows  that  for  several  years  before  the  break-up  of  the 
Conservative  Administration  his  attitude  towards  Peel 
was  hardly  sympathetic.  His  political  views  led  him  to 
incline  more  and  more  towards  the  Liberal  side,  and  he 
had  lost  his  own  personal  admiration  for  the  Tory 
leader.  In  these  circumstances,  instead  of  joining  the 
little  band  known  to  history  as  Peelites,  and  altogether 
unable  to  remain  within  the  ranks  of  the  devoted  Pro- 
tectionists, he  preferred  to  take  the  simple  and  straight- 
forward course  of  openly  allying  himself  with  the  new 
Administration.  From  that  time  forward  his  political 
life  was  spent  within  the  fold  of  the  Liberal  party. 

The  autumn  of  1846  was  devoted  to  social  life  in 
England,  Milnes  not  wishing  for  several  reasons  to 
leave  the  country.  The  state  of  politics  made  it 
desirable  that  he  should  remain  within  easy  reach  of 
his  constituents ;  but  another  and  more  urgent  reason 
for  not  indulging  in  his  love  of  foreign  travel  was  the 
precarious  state  of  his  mother's  health.  Mrs.  Milnes 
had  been  able  to  visit  London  during  the  summer,  and 
in  her  diary  she  mentions  how,  on  reaching  her  son's 
house,  she  found  him,  with  a  party,  at  breakfast,  "  the 
Pasha  just  arrived,  Prince  Louis,  Count  D'Orsay,  and 
Cobden."  From  London  she  went  to  Brighton,  where 
she  had  a  severe  attack  of  English  cholera,  from  the 
effects  of  which  she  never  seems  really  to  have  recovered. 
To  the  last  she  manifested  the  keenest  interest  in  her 
son's  career,  and  was  never  happier  than  when  she  was 
able  to  entertain  his  friends  at  Fryston  or  Bawtry.  But 


378  TEE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

her  diary  of  the  last  few  months  of  her  life  affords 
touching  proof  of  her  growing  infirmity,  and  of  how, 
with  sore  reluctance,  she  was  compelled  more  and  more 
to  withdraw  herself  from  that  bright  circle  of  wit  and 
culture  in  which  her  son  formed  so  prominent  a  figure. 
They  had  expected  a  visit  from  the  Disraelis  during 
the  autumn,  but  were  compelled,  owing  to  the  state  of 
Mrs.  Milnes's  health,  to  put  them  off. 
Writing  to  his  father,  Milnes  says — 

Mrs.  Dizzy  is  so  much  more  your  invitee  than  mine  that 
you  had  better  write  her  a  line,  merely  saying-  that  my  mother 
will  not  be  up  to  a  party.  I  will  put  off  Knight  and  Gregory, 
my  only  guests.  I  am,  indeed,  thankful  for  my  mother's 
tranquil  state  of  mind ;  I  pray  it  may  continue  so ;  and  we  should 
be  grateful  that  we  are  able  to  surround  her  with  all  that  care 
and  affection  can  supply. 

In  December,  there  being  a  slight  improvement  in 
his  mother's  condition,  Milnes  had  the  pleasure  of 
entertaining  at  Fryston  his  friend  MacCarthy,  who, 
having  come  to  England  from  Turk's  Island,  was  now 
about  to  start  for  Ceylon.  Two  other  old  friends, 
Venables  and  Lushington,  joined  the  party  ;  and  his 
mother  records  on  the  last  page  of  her  diary  that 
"Richard  read  aloud  'Mrs.  Perkins's  Ball,'  by 
Thackeray."  The  last  entry  contained  in  the  journal 
which  Mrs.  Milnes  kept  throughout  her  married  life 
is  dated  Jan.  llth,  1847,  and  refers  to  the  growing 
intelligence  of  her  grandson,  the  present  Lord  Galway. 
From  that  time  her  decline  was  continuous,  and  on  the 
1st  of  May  she  died  at  Serlby,  the  house  from  which 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  379 

she  had  been  married,  and  of  which  her  daughter  (Lady 
Gal  way)  was  at  that  time  the  mistress.* 

The  blow  was  a  severe  one  to  Milnes,  who  now — 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life — was  brought  face  to  face 
with  death,  and  it  was  long  ere  he  recovered  his  usual 
spirits. 

In  his  Commonplace  Book  for  the  year,  under  date 
May  1st,  he  notes — 

It  is  a  good  moral  instruction  to  examine  yourself  after  the 
death  of  one  you  have  loved,  and  test  your  duty  by  the  feelings 
you  then  experience. 

Again  that  underlying  melancholy  which,  unsus- 
pected as  it  was  by  the  majority  of  his  friends,  was 
still  the  keynote  of  his  character,  is  made  visible  in  the 
following,  written  at  the  same  time  : — 

Providence  seems  to  have  surrounded  death  with  so  much 
pain  and  so  many  circumstances  of  horror  and  repugnance  in 
order  to  prevent  men  from  loving  it  too  well,  and  embracing  it 
too  eagerly  as  a  refuge  from  the  vicissitude  and  vacancy 
of  life. 

His  thoughts  were  diverted  from  his  grief  by  the 
pressure  of  political  affairs.  Parliament  was  dissolved 
in  the  summer,  and  Milnes  had  to  stand  a  sharp  contest 
for  his  seat  at  Pontefract ;  his  action  with  regard  to 

*  Mrs.  Milnes  was  born  at  Claremont,  at  that  time  the  property  of  her 
father.  Many  years  afterwards,  when  Lord  Houghton  was  staying  at 
Claremont  as  the  guest  of  the  Duke  of  Albany,  he  mentioned  the  fact  to 
his  host.  "  Ah,  what  a  relief,"  said  His  Royal  Highness,  "  to  hear  of 
anyone  being  born  here  !  Until  now  I  have  only  heard  of  people  having 
died  in  this  house ;  "  and  he  insisted  upon  taking  Lord  Houghton  through 
the  spacious  building,  to  see  if  they  could  identify  the  room  where  his 
mother  had  been  born. 


380  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Maynooth  and  the  endowment  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  Ireland  having  roused  bitter  opposition  to 
him  on  one  side,  whilst  his  abandonment  of  Protection 
had  necessarily  alienated  many  of  his  old  friends  on  the 
other.  But  though  he  lost  his  old  position  at  the  head 
of  the  poll,  and  only  secured  a  narrow  majority  of 
19  votes  over  his  opponent,  Mr.  Preston,  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  being  again  returned. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartTiy. 

Fryston,  Aug.  \5th,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — I  ought  to  have  written  before,  but 
personal  events  came  so  thick  on  me  that  I  have  had  hardly 
time  or  inclination  for  a  quiet  talk  over  the  seas  with  anyone. 
After  a  most  trying  contest  I  am  again  M.P.  The  Clergy  and 
the  Methodists  entered  into  a  holy  league  against  me,  and  spared 
neither  truth  nor  money  to  turn  me  out  for  what  the  fools  call 
my  Popery.  All  they  have  done  has  been  to  put  me  to  a  great 
deal  of  expense  and  annoyance,  and  themselves  to  much  more. 
Hawes*  is  naturally  much  annoyed  at  his  Lambeth  defeat,  and 
it  is  poor  encouragement  to  any  Government  to  go  and  take 
Ministers  out  of  the  great  middle  class  when  such  as  he  are 
thrown  over.  I  understand  Macaulay  with  his  Whig  religion 
being  very  unacceptable  to  the  Edinburghians,  but  Hawes  kept 
up  so  completely  the  type  of  the  respectable  and  intelligent 
bourgeois  that  I  should  have  thought  it  a  great  prize  for  them  to 
have  a  representative  in  whose  success  they  themselves  were 
honoured.  The  Government  are  not  pleased  with  the  result  of 
the  elections,  although  their  numerical  majority  is  improved,  yet 
it  is  annoying  that  no  single  man  has  been  elected  as  a  Russell- 
ite;  that  some  of  their  best  officials  are  without  seats;  and 
that  the  popular  candidates  have  all  been  Radicals.  But  though 

*  Sir  Benjamin    Hawes,  whose    daughter    MacCarthy    subsequently 
married. 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  381 

the  party  may  be  weak,  the  Government  may  be  strong.  No 
other  party  has  gained  any  more,  and  I  do  not  at  all  give  in 
to  the  prevalent  cackle  that  the  Whigs  cannot  go  on. 

Now  for  Ceylon ;  imprimis,  pray  thank  Sir  E.  Tennent  for 
his  kind  note,  and  tell  him  I  would  write  to  him  if  I  could  tell 
him  anything  more  than  the  newspapers.  Give  Arthur  Buller, 
too,  all  my  regards.  I  was  a  little  disappointed  at  the  tone  of 
your  letter,  but  your  feverishness  explained  it.  I  wanted  you 
to  be  more  content,  not  with  having  got  more  money,  but  with 
having  got  more  notable  work  and  with  the  just  consideration 
paid  you.  H.  Lushington  has  been  annoyed  at  finding  his 
Malta  secretaryship  is  only  a  thousand  per  annum,  and  would, 
I  think,  have  given  it  up,  but  that  they  gave  him  leave  for  the 
summer.  I  am  sure  you  could  never  have  done  half  as  much 
there  as  you  may  where  you  now  are,  and  with  all  my  sense  of 
your  fitnesses  I  would  not  exchange  the  one  for  the  other  for 
you  for  even  higher  salary.  The  nearness  to  home  is  nothing. 
If  all  goes  well  for  some  time  longer,  you  can  come  to  Malta, 
and  find  someone  there  to  take  back  to  Colombo.  Send  me  a 
sketch  of  your  house  by  the  hand  of  some  fair  designer.  I  have 
a  good  general  idea  of  the  scenery  from  books.  My  father 
thinks  you  should  write  a  volume  or  two  on  "  Colonial 
Legislation,"  with  scraps  of  old  learning,  and  a  dedication  to 
Lord  Grey ;  but  I  think  you  had  better  leave  your  mark  on 
the  Government  of  Ceylon  before  you  write  your  name  out  in 
any  other  way.  But  there  can  be  no  harm  in  noting  down  your 
hourly  experience.  My  present  project  is  to  leave  England  the 
beginning  of  September,  pass  a  few  days  at  Lisbon,  run  over 
Andalusia,  and  spend  a  month  with  Bulwer  at  Madrid.  My 
father's  health  is  so  uncertain  that  I  can  fix  nothing;  but,  if  all 
goes  well,  I  may  make  this  an  agreeable  and  instructive  tour. 
All  it  wants  is  your  multilingual  faculty.  O'Brien  has  gone 
and  done  the  foolish  thing  of  changing  his  name.  He  is  now 
Mr.  Stafford,  his  grandmother  having  borne  that  name.  You 
will  see  that  Urquhart  and  his  mad  Catholic  Anstey  are  both 
in  Parliament.  I  cannot  take  much  amusement  in  the  extrava- 


382  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD  HOUGHTON. 

gances  of  my  fellow-men,  else  one  might  anticipate  much  fun 
from  the  encounter  of  this  idiotic  fanaticism  with  Palmerston's 
cocky  common  sense.  I  do  not  suppose  Havves's  defeat  will  alter 
his  position.  One  Under-Secretary  must  be  out  of  the  House 
of  Commons;  and  Lord  John  likes  defending  Colonial  matters 

himself. 

I  remain  your  affectionate 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

MacCarthy  was  not  the  only  old  friend  whom 
Mijnes  had  in  the  East.  Sir  James  Colvile,  his  old 
Trinity  College  contemporary,  was  now  acting  as  Ad- 
vocate-General at  Calcutta,  whence  he  regularly  cor- 
responded with  him. 

Sir  James  Cofaile  to  R.  M.  M. 

Darj heeling,  Oct.  \\th,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Since  I  have  been  here  I  have  read 
your  article  on  "  Tancred,"  *  which  pleased  me  much,  though 
you  might,  perhaps,  have  put  a  little  more  pepper  into  your 
review  of  Dizzy  and  his  theory.  On  the  subject  of  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  Jews,  I  was  much  struck  with  your  observations 
upon  that  which,  to  my  mind,  is  the  strongest  argument  for 
Jewish  disabilities — namely,  their  distinctive  nationality.  .  .  . 
I  am  living  here  in  a  Babel  of  tribes  and  nations,  and,  to  make 
them  more  interesting,  I  am  living  with  an  eminent  ethnologist, 
who  for  more  than  twenty-five  years  has  had,  and  profited  by, 
peculiar  opportunities  of  studying  the  varieties  of  men  that 
inhabit  the  Sub-Himalaya.  He  is  Mr.  Hodgson  (better  known 
to  the  world  in  general  as  a  naturalist),  who  for  many  years  was 
our  Resident  in  Nepaul,  and  then  occupied  his  leisure  in  these 
researches.  He  was,  notwithstanding,  an  excellent  public 
servant;  but  Lord  Ellenborough,  because  he  was  a  civilian, 
and  had  been  esteemed  by  Lord  Auckland,  chose  to  vote  him  an 

*  Edinburgh  Review,  1847. 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  383 

ornithological  humbug,  and,  by  one  of  the  most  wanton  acts  of 
his  capricious  tyranny,  recalled  him.  Hodgson,  in  disgust, 
unfortunately  for  himself,  resigned  the  service.  Had  he  not 
done  so,  he  would  probably  by  this  time  have  found  his  way  back 
to  Nepaul.  As  it  is,  not  feeling  comfortable  in  Europe,  he  has 
returned  to  these  hills,  and  continues,  but  with  crippled  means, 
his  scientific  labours  as  a  private  gentleman.  He  is  a  very 
taking,  well-informed  person,  and  I  have  learned  more  about 
India  from  him  in  these  few  weeks  than  I  have  learned  at 
Calcutta  in  nearly  two  years.  .  .  .  October  12th.  A  mail 
in.  The  result  of  the  elections  seems  to  be  something  not  very 
decisive,  and  to  give  importance  to  Peel's  squadron ;  but,  with 
a  little  see-sawing,  Ministers  ought  to  do  well.  I  was  sorry 
to  see  that  you  have  had  the  expense  of  a  contest,  though  a 
successful  one.  How  do  the  magnates  of  the  West  Riding 
like  Richard  Cobden  for  their  representative  ?  He  is  the  Aris- 
tides  of  the  League,  and  I  suspect  our  FitzWilliams  and  Co. 
would  not  be  sorry  to  ostracise  him.  .  .  .  What  an  odd 
story  is  this  of  the  French  duke  and  his  wife  !  *  -Pray  heaven 
this  Eugene  Sueism  does  not  obtain  in  good  society  !  "  Save 
our  old  nobility,"  as  John  Manners  says,  "  from  the  dagger  and 
the  bowl "  :  they  should  be  content  with  Doctors'  Commons, 
and  eschew  the  Old  Bailey.  I  was  much  pleased  to  hear  of 

's   marriage  and  also  of  's.     Why,  as  I  said  to 

O'Brien,  don't  you  let  me  hear  of   yours?      It    is   time  you 
should   take  steps  to   be  known    to    posterity   by   your    olive 
branches    as    well    as  by    your    "  Palm    Leaves,"   particularly 
since  Miss  Berry  says  you  are  grown  too  fat  to  be  a  poet. 
Always  most  sincerely  yours, 

JAMES  COLVILE. 

Among  the  men  of  letters  whose  friendship  Milnes 
had  made  before  this  period  was   Mr.   Browning,  for 
whom,  as  well  as  for  his  illustrious  wife,  Milnes  enter- 
tained a  sincere  personal  affection. 
*  Due  de  Praslin. 


384  THE   LIFE    OF  LOED   SOUGHTON. 

floberi  Browning  to  R.  M.  M. 

Pisa,  March  Zlst,  1847. 

DEAR  MILNES, — "When  I  left  England,  I  bade  my  sister  at 
home  open  all  letters  sent  to  me,  and  only  forward  the  pith 
of  them,  but  a  little  note  of  your  writing  was  all  pith,  so  I 
got  it  in  its  entireness,  and  very  pleasantly  your  voice  sounded 
in  the  few  words  of  it  as  I  read  them  here  under  the  grim 
Campanella,  the  top  of  which,  with  the  real  honest  balconies 
in  these  parts,  will  just  hit  the  roof  of  this  huge  old  Collegio 
Ferdinando,  "  where  Bartolo/'  of  crabbed  memory,  "  once 
taught,"  as  the  inscription  states,  and  where  I  now  teach — 
you  patience,  if  your  good  nature  reads  to  the  end.  Well,  your 
good  wishes  for  my  sake  have  been  wonderfully  realised  ;  my 
wife  is  quite  well,  and,  now  that  the  weather  permits,  we  begin 
our  spring  progress,  Florence  being  the  first  stage,  whence,  when 
the  heat  obliges,  we  mean  to  go  the  round  of  Siena,  Colle, 
Volterra,  Lucca,  Pescia,  Prato,  Pistoia,  Bologna,  and  so  get,  at 
the  year's  end,  to  Venice  for  the  winter,  next  winter  to  that  (if 
one  dares  look  forward  so  far)  finding  us  in  Rome. 

Now  I  want  to  speak  to  you,  and  your  old  kindness  will 
understand,  I  am  sure.  A  six  months'  residence  in  Pisa  is 
favourable  to  a  great  deal  of  speculation  and  political  study,  and 
though  last  week's  papers  prove  that  a  capital  speech  about 
Krakow  may  be  studied  in  Pall  Mall  as  well  as  on  the  spot,  yet 
here — what  shall  I  say  ? — here  one  sees  more  clearly  than  else- 
where that — why,  only  that  England  needs  must  not  loiter 
behind  the  very  Grand  Turkian  policy,  but  send  a  Minister  before 
the  year  ends  to  this  fine  fellow,  Pio  Nono — as  certain,  that  is, 
as  that  his  name  will  be  Lord  Somebody — against  which  the 
time  is  not  yet  come  to  complain.  But  I  should  like  to  have  to 
remember  that  I  asked  you,  whose  sympathy  I  am  sure  of,  to 
mention  in  the  proper  quarter,  should  you  see  occasion,  that  I 
would  be  glad  and  proud  to  be  the  secretary  to  such  an  embassy, 
and  to  work  like  a  horse  in  my  vocation.  You  know  I  have 
studied  Italian  literature  sedulously.  Governments  nowadays 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  385 

give  poets  pensions  :  I  believe  one  may  dun  them  into  it.  Now, 
I  and  my  wife  "  keep  our  pen  out  of  lenders'  books,  and  defy 
the  foul  fiend.'"  We  are  quite  independent,  through  God's  good- 
ness, and  trust  to  continue  so ;  but,  as  I  say,  I  should  like  to 
remember  at  a  future  day  that  I  proposed  (and  through  the  inter- 
vention of  such  a  person  as  yourself,  if  you  will  lend  it  to  me)  to 
deserve  well  of  my  generation  by  doing  in  this  matter  what  many 
circumstances  embolden  me  to  think  few  others  could  do  so  well. 
One  gets  excited — at  least,  here  on  the  spot — by  this  tiptoe 
strained  expectation  of  poor  dear  Italy,  and  yet,  if  I  had  not 
known  you,  I  believe  I  should  have  looked  on  with  the  other 
bystanders.  It  is  hateful  to  ask,  but  I  ask  nothing;  indeed, 
rather  I  concede  a  very  sincere  promise  to  go  on  bookmaking  (as 
my  wife  shall)  to  the  end  of  our  natural  life,  and  making  the 
public  a  present  of  our  hard  work  without  a  pretension  to  the 
Pension  List.  Will  you  think  of  this  and  me  ?  Whatever  comes, 
I  hope  to  remain  in  Italy  for  years  ;  so  let  me  shake  your  hand 
over  the  sea,  and  take  that  much  by  your  motion. 

Ever  yours  faithfully, 

ROBERT  BROWNING. 

The  Government  did  not  send  a  mission  to  Pio 
Nono.  Ere  long,  indeed,  events  in  Rome  took  an 
altogether  unexpected  turn,  and  the  Diplomatic  Service 
consequently  lost  the  opportunity  of  securing  the  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  Browning. 

After  the  election  Milnes — who,  like  the  rest  of  the 
world,  was  deeply  concerned  by  the  state  of  affairs  in  Ire- 
land, where  the  famine  was  now  at  its  height — went  over 
to  Rawdon  to  see  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster,  whose  acquaintance 
he  had  made  some  time  previously  at  Bradford,  and  in 
whom  he  had  been  quick  to  detect  the  presence  of  those 
great  qualities  which  were  afterwards  to  be  employed 
with  so  much  advantage  to  the  people  of  England. 


386  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   ROUGttTON. 

Carlyle  was  at  that  time  staying  with  Forster,  and  had 
written  to  Milnes  as  follows : — 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Rawdon,  near  Leeds,  August  \§th,  1847. 
DEAR  MILNES, — Are  you  at  present  in  these  parts  ?  My 
wife  and  I  have  been  in  Derbyshire,  drinking  the  Matlock 
waters,  looking  into  bottomless  ennui  of  Buxton,  into  Haddon 
Hall,  and  the  wonders  of  the  DeviFs  apparatus  in  the  Peak,  and  we 
have  now  arrived  at  fixed  quarters  for  a  few  days,  and  are  capable 
of  looking  deliberately  before  and  after.  If  you  are  at  Fryston, 
I  will  give  you  a  meeting  any  day  at  any  spot  near  mid-distance, 
and  hold  with  you  a  solemn  conference  of  more  than  an  hour's 
continuance.  This  place  is  seven  miles  beyond  Leeds.  I  saw 
Temple  Newsam  and  other  old  localities  connected  with  you  as 
we  rolled  along  hither  on  Monday  evening  last.  My  humane 
landlord — really  a  good  Samaritan,  and  an  excellent,  cheerful, 
intelligent  young  man,  whom  you  would  like — allows  me  a  horse 
— horses ;  and  I  should,  as  always,  like  well  to  see  you.  Our 
length  of  stay  here  is  undetermined;  cannot  readily  be  long. 
Pray  consider  what  can  be  done,  and  let  us  do  it.  We  read  your 
election  squibs  fresh  and  fresh  at  Addiscombe ;  learned  af  terwards 
with  due  loyalty  that  you  were  re-elected,  though  with  difficulty. 
Is  not  the  ten-pound  franchise  going  curiouswards  ?  Is  not  the 
thrice-miraculous  Parliament  rather  like  to  go  a  curious  road 
before  very  long  ?  Whitherward,  think  you  ?  We  are  Quakers 
here — or,  rather,  ex- Quakers — of  a  Liberal  and  even  elegant 
trim,  to  whom  George  Fox,  in  his  leather  suit,  is,  as  it  were, 
mostly  an  object  of  art,  and  little  remains  of  Quakerism  but  the 
spring-well  clearness  and  cleanness  and  the  divine  silence — really 
one  of  the  divinest  things  to  a  poor  worried  creature  on  this 
beautiful  hill-top.  Address  W.  E.  Forster  here,  and  let  us  know 
soon  what  is  to  be  expected  of  you. 

Yours  ever, 

T.  CARLYLE. 


CHANGE   OF   VIEWS.  387 

Milnes  went  over  at  once  to  Rawdon,  and  spent 
a  pleasant  day  under  Mr.  Forster's  roof  in  the  com- 
pany of  his  two  friends.  "  And  seldom  has  one  small 
house  in  a  West  Eiding  valley  sheltered  four  more 
remarkable  persons  than  were  then  gathered  together." 
Forster  himself,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Barclay  Fox, 
gives  an  account  of  the  meeting  of  Milnes  and  Carlyle. 
"  Monckton  Milnes  came  yesterday,  and  left  this  morn- 
ing— a  pleasant  companionable  little  man,  well  fed  and 
fattening,  with  some  small  remnant  of  poetry  in  his 
eyes  and  nowhere  else ;  delighting  in  paradoxes,  but 
good-humoured  ones ;  defending  all  manner  of  people 
and  principles,  in  order  to  provoke  Carlyle  to  abuse  them, 
in  which  laudable  enterprise  he  must  have  succeeded 
to  his  heart's  content,  and  for  a  time  we  had  a  most 
amusing  evening,  reminding  me  of  a  naughty  boy 
rubbing  a  fierce  cat's  tail  backwards,  and  getting  in 
between  furious  growls  and  fiery  sparks.  He  managed 
to  avoid  the  threatened  scratches."  Between  Forster 
and  Milnes  the  friendship  which  had  begun  when  they 
first  met  continued  to  the  end  of  their  days.  Unques- 
tionably, they  were  the  two  most  distinguished 
Yorkshiremen  of  their  time,  and  although  they  differed 
as  widely  as  two  men  well  could  in  personal  charac- 
teristics and  views  of  life,  there  were  such  strong  bonds 
of  sympathy  between  them  that  their  friendship  ripened 
into  a  real  affection  and  regard.  Forster  was  at  that 
time  unknown  in  the  fashionable  world.  He  was  still 
the  young  Yorkshire  manufacturer,  of  strong  intelligence, 
lively  ambition,  and  advanced  political  opinions,  who 


388  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

had  captured  the  hearts  of  not  a  few  leaders  of  thought 
in  London — Carlyle  among  the  rest — but  to  whom  the 
great  world  of  politics  and  society  was  still  as  a  sealed 
volume.  Milnes,  who  had  taken  to  him  from  the  first, 
made  it  his  business  during  many  years  to  lose  no  oppor- 
tunity of  serving  his  friend  as  he  best  could,  by  bringing 
him  into  contact  with  those  upon  whom  and  through 
whom  he  could  wield  the  greatest  amount  of  influence 
for  good.  Nor  can  I  account  it  the  least  of  the  many 
services  of  this  kind  which  Milnes  rendered  to  his  own 
generation  that  he  should  have  had  so  large  a  part  in 
bringing  into  his  own  proper  sphere  the  man  who  was 
destined  to  carry  the  Education  Bill. 

How  wide  was  the  range  of  social  influence  which 
Milnes  in  those  days  wielded,  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  among  those  with  whom  he  was  then  intimate 
was  the  recognised  leader  of  English  society,  the  Duke 
of  Wellington.  Between  the  great  captain  and  the 
young  poet  a  real  friendship  existed.  The  Duke  de- 
lighted in  Milnes's  talk,  consulted  him  upon  literary 
subjects,  and  was  always  happy  to  receive  him  as  a 
guest.  The  friendship  which  existed  between  Milnes 
and  the  illustrious  hero  of  Waterloo  was  extended  to 
the  second  Duke,  who  kept  up  a  lifelong  correspondence 
with  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  To  say  that  Milnes 
shared  the  national  reverence  for  the  character  and 
achievements  of  the  great  soldier  is  to  understate  the 
truth ;  but  whilst  he  yielded  to  no  man  in  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  grand  simplicity  of  Wellington's  character, 
he  had  an  appreciation  scarcely  less  keen  of  the  qualities 


CHANGE   OF     VIEWS.  389 

of  his  son,  the  second  Duke.  "Never,"  said  he  in 
conversation  with  the  present  writer,  "has  there  been 
an  instance  more  striking  of  the  disadvantage  of  great 
birth  than  that  which  the  present  (the  second)  Duke  of 
Wellington  affords.  He  would  have  been  one  of  the 
greatest  men  in  England  if  he  had  not  been  so  com- 
pletely overshadowed  by  the  reputation  of  his  father.'* 
There  was  no  better  judge  of  character  than  Monckton 
Milnes,  and  even  the  friends  of  the  late  Duke  of 
Wellington  may  not  be  sorry  to  hear  the  opinion  which 
he  had  formed  of  that  distinguished  person.  It  was  one 
of  those  judgments  which  run  counter  to  the  prevalent 
opinion  of  the  world,  but  it  was,  at  least,  honestly 
formed,  and  is  not  unworthy  of  being  recorded. 

Among  Milnes's  papers  some  interesting  relics  of  the 
great  Duke  are  to  be  found,  for  his  family  seem  to  have 
regarded  it  as  part  of  their  duty  to  keep  the  member  for 
Pontefract  informed  of  all  the  more  notable  sayings  of 
the  hero.  Here,  for  example,  is  a  letter  of  this  year 
(1847),  written  by  the  Duke  in  reply  to  a  correspondent 
who  had  sought  to  elicit  from  him  some  expression  of 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  famous  equestrian  statue 
which  at  that  time  had  just  been  erected  in  front  of 
Apsley  House.  The  letter  was  sent  to  Milnes  by  one 
of  the  Duke's  relatives  ;  and  it  is  not  without  interest 
as  an  illustration  of  the  character  of  the  writer. 


London,  July  3rd,  1847.  (At 

F.  M.   (the  Duke  of  Wellington)  presents  his  compliments 
to  Mr.  Edkins.     It  is  certainly  true  that  anybody  is  at  liberty 


300  THE  LIFE    OF  LORD 

to  inquire  the  opinion  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  On  any 
subject,  but  he  hopes  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  has  the 
liberty,  which  all  other  individuals  have,  to  decline  to  give 
an  opinion.  When  certain  respected  individuals  about  two 
years  ago  expressed  their  desire  that  the  Duke  should  give 
sittings  to  an  artist  to  enable  him  to  construct  an  equestrian 
statue  of  himself  which  they  were  desirous  of  erecting,  and 
which  he  was  informed  that  his  Gracious  Sovereign  had  desired 
might  be  placed  on  the  land  adjoining  the  entrance  into  the 
Green  Park  from  Hyde  Park  Corner,  in  commemoration  of  by- 
gone events  and  transactions  in  which  he  had  acted  a  part,  he 
consented,  on  condition  that,  excepting  to  sit  to  the  artist,  he 
should  from  that  time  forward  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
work,  or,  to  use  his  own  words,  should  be  considered  as  dead. 
He  has  accordingly,  from  that  time  forward,  had  no  relation 
with  the  work  in  question.  He  has  seen  it  as  others  have — nay, 
more  frequently  than  others,  as  it  is  placed  opposite  the  windows 
of  his  house  ;  but,  as  was  becoming,  he  has  uniformly  avoided 
to  give  any  opinion  on  the  work  or  on  the  position  in  which  it 
is  placed.  He  desires  to  persevere  in  this  course,  which  is  the 
most  becoming  for  an  individual  in  a  discussion  on  a  statue  of 
himself,  intended  to  commemorate  to  posterity  transactions  .in 
which  he  has  acted  a  part. 

After  the  death  of  the  Duke,  a  woman,  who  had  by 
a  betrayal  of  confidence  come  into  possession  of  certain 
letters  of  a  very  private  character  written  by  a  relative 
of  his  of  a  former  generation,  wrote  to  the  second  Duke 
offering  to  sell  these  letters  to  him,  under  a  transparent 
threat  of  publishing  them  in  the  event  of  his  declining 
to  pay  blackmail.  The  Duke  showed  a  sense  of  humour, 
and  a  sagacity  worthy  of  his  illustrious  father,  in  the 
manner  in  which  he  dealt  with  this  insolent  application. 
He  forwarded  the  woman's  letter  to  Lord  Houghton, 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  391 

simply  writing  across  it  the  words :  "  I  have  told  her 
you  may  like  to  buy  them."  It  is  needless  to  say  that, 
in  presence  of  so  cool  and  clever  a  rebuff,  she  abandoned 
her  purpose,  and  did  not  even  attempt  to  make  money 
of  her  ill-acquired  property  by  offering  it  to  so  well- 
known  a  collector  of  social  curiosities  as  Lord  Houghton. 
Milnes,  as  he  mentioned  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
MacCarthy,  had  resolved  to  spend  the  autumn  in  a 
tour  in  the  Peninsula.  One  of  his  reasons  for  wishing 
to  visit  Spain  was  the  fact  that  Sir  Henry  Bulwer  was 
at  that  time  acting  as  Minister  at  Madrid,  and  was 
anxious  to  entertain  him  there.  Another  reason  was, 
that  a  visit  to  the  Peninsula  had  been  suggested  to 
him  by  Lord  Palmerston,  in  order  that  he  might  acquire 
some  knowledge,  by  personal  observation,  of  the  state 
of  political  affairs  in  Spain. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Alverstoke,  Sunday,  Sept.,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, —  ....  Lockhart  and  Croker  are 
here ;  the  former  talks  of  joining  me  by  the  next  packet ;  he 
knows  enough  of  Spain  to  make  his  company  very  acceptable 
The  latter  is  more  contradictious  than  ever,  and  talks  incessantly 
of  two  subjects :  Praslin  and  Peel.  He  says,  the  latter  owes 
everything  to  his  wonderful  natural  memory.  Among  other 
facts,  we  heard  to-night  that  Scarlett  made  very  near  £500,000 
before  he  got  on  the  Bench,  and  Halford  £300,000  in  guineas 
before  he  ceased  to  practise.  Lady  Ashburton  has  heard  that  our 
bribery  at  Pontefract  was  frightful.  Mrs.  P.  wrote  to  Miss 
Eden  that  I  was  detected  going  about  in  a  blouse,  with  a  yellow 
handkerchief,  giving  handfuls  of  sovereigns.  I  met  Charles 
Villiers  at  dinner  at  the  Rothschilds',  which  was  in  the  German 


392  THE    LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

way  for  the  Duchess  of  Gloucester,  at  4  o'clock,  and  the  con- 
sequence was  that  some  of  the  great  company  arrived  at  7.30, 
just  after  H.R.H.  had  retired.  Villiers  has  determined  to  sit 
for  Wolverhampton,  and  seemed  very  angry  that  Hawes  had 
been  spying  about  for  the  seat.  ...  . 

Your  affectionate 

E.    M.    MlLNBS. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Miss  Caroline  Milnes. 

Alverstoke,  Sept.  §th,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  CAROLINE, — I  will  attend  to 'a  note,  with- 
out, however,  any  very  great  hope  of  being  able  to  assist  him. 
I  find  in  influential  men  such  a  huge  difference  between  treating 
you  in  all  kindness  in  private,  and  obliging  you  in  public 
matters.  I  suppose  they  think  it  best  to  use  their  patronage  to 
a  great  extent  in  conciliating  those  whom  they  cannot  please  in 
any  other  way.  I  do  not  know  either  what  is  the  extent  of  the 
favour  applied  for.  I  remember  once  asking  for  an  Indian 
Assistant- Surgeonship,  and  I  was  told  I  might  just  as  well  ask 
for  the  Presidency  of  the  Board  of  Control.  I  start  to-morrow. 
There  will  be  enough  wind  to  make  me  very  ill,  and  effectually 
to  check  any  gallantry  towards  Lady  Emmeline  Stuart  Wortley, 
who  is  my  fellow-passenger.  I  am  going- out  to-day  in  Lord 
Ashburton's  yacht  as  a  sort  of  practice.  Tell  Louisa  I  accept 
her  prayers  for  my  internal  state  much  more  than  for  my  ex- 
ternal welfare.  If  it  be  true  that  the  soul  is  only  made  perfect 
through  struggles  and  sufferings,  and  that  prosperity  is  the 
greatest  of  temptations,  I  don't  understand  praying  for  one's 
temporal  advantages,  or  freedom  from  danger,  or  that  of  others 
in  whom  we  are  interested.  I  quite  sympathise  with  Arch- 
bishop Whately's  dislike  to  a  public  prayer  against  the  Irish 
famine,  as  it  might  prove  ultimately  the  greatest  blessing  to 
that  country.  I  met  the  Duchess  of  Gloucester  at  dinner  on 
Saturday,  looking  very  old.  There  was  still  a  sprinkling  of 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  393 

fine  people  about  town.  Lord  Palmerston  is  much  annoyed  at 
having  to  go  into  the  Highlands,  with  so  many  matters  of 
importance  which  are  daily  being  referred  to  him,  but  the  Queen 
would  not  let  him  off. 


R.  N.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Lisbon,  Sept.  10M,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, — I  do  not  know  whether  you  will  receive 
before  this  a  letter*  I  wrote  by  Vigo,  from  the  Bay  of  .Biscay, 
telling  you  of  my  safe  and  not  disagreeable  transit.  I  was  quite 
used  to  the  sea  after  the  second  day.  The  weather  here  has 
been  charming ;  clear  sky,  with  generally  a  fresh  wind — the  place 
quite  as  delightful  as  I  expected.  The  parts  near  the  river  very 
like  Venice,  those  on  the  hills  like  Constantinople,  and  the 
general  aspect  like  Naples.  The  breadth  and  sweep  of  the 
Tagus  surprises  me.  It  looks  more  like  a  strait  than  a  river. 
There  is,  luckily,  not  much  sight-seeing,  for  the  ups  and  downs 
of  the  town  are  very  trying.  The  churches  are  gaudy,  and  with 
wretched  art  about  them,  with  the  exception  of  one  near  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  which  is  the  most  graceful  adaptation  of  all 
possible  modern  ideas  to  Gothic  architecture,  quite  the  cathedral 
of  the  people  who  won  India  and  Brazil.  Political  matters  look 
even  worse  than  at  a  distance  ;  they  have  got  all  the  partisan- 
ship of  a  constitutional  Government  without  any  of  its  checks 
and  forms,  and  thus  Ministries  are  upset  and  offices  occupied  by 
revolutions  and  bloodshed,  instead  of  by  debates  and  majorities. 
As  far  as  I  yet  see,  I  think  we  have  much  misapprehended  and 
underrated  the  Royalist  party,  who  detest  Don  Miguel  per- 
sonally, but  who  hold  to  the  old  institutions,  which  perhaps 
after  all  should  rather  have  been  modified  than  entirely  sub- 
verted, as  they  have  been.  The  Queen  is  an  ugly  likeness  of 
Lady  Caroline  Lascelles,  and  is  well  spoken  of  by  almost  all 
parties — a  dull  good  woman.  The  Coburg  King  is  very  hand- 
some and  pleasant-mannered.  I  have  been  presented  this 

*  Missing. 


394  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

morning  at  a  very  gay  and  showy  levee,  and  the  King  said  he 
must  see  me  again,  which  is  a  bore,  as  it  may  interfere  with 
other  projects.  Sir  H.  Seymour  takes  great  pains  to  let  me 
know  what  is  going  on.  I  have  dined  with  him  and  the  French 
Minister,  and  go  with  him  to  Cintra  on  Saturday.  Marshal 
Saldanha  thanked  me  for  my  speech,  and  said  I  was  the  English- 
man who  knew  most  about  the  matter.  Rather  an  equivocal 
compliment.  You  might  really  have  come  on  here  without  any 
trouble,  and  would,  I  think,  have  been  amused.  The  Hotel  is 
good  enough  for  anything.  I  have  just  missed  seeing  Sir 
Charles  Napier  in  his  glory,  which  would  have  been  very 
amusing.  He  left  the  Port  the  day  I  arrived,  but  has  orders  to 
keep  within  reach  of  telegraph.  The  finances  seem  in  a  frightful 
state  ;  the  last  loan  for  £16,000,  and  contracted  at  an  immense 
sacrifice.  I  met  their  best  man  of  business,  Count  Toyal,  at 
Seymour's  to-day.  Write  always  to  Cadiz,  though  I  may  go 
first  to  Gibraltar.  Let  me  hear  you  keep  well,  and  have  got 
Hudson's  money. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

In  explanation  of  the  last  sentence  in  the  foregoing 
letter,  it  should  be  said  that  the  railway  projects  which 
were  now  being  carried  out  so  extensively  throughout 
England  were  of  special  importance  to  the  Milnes 
family,  a  large  portion  of  their  land  being  required  for 
the  construction  of  lines.  It  was,  in  fact,  owing  to  this 
circumstance,  and  to  the  sale  for  building  purposes  of  a 
portion  of  his  estate  which  lay  within  the  great  borough 
of  Leeds,  that  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  was  enabled  to 
restore  the  family  fortunes,  and  to  recoup  himself  for 
the  sacrifice  which  he  and  his  son  had  made  when  they 
paid  a  sum  of  more  than  £100,000  for  the  purpose  of 
.clearing  Bodes  Milnes's  liabilities. 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  395 

It.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

Lisbon,  Sept.  22nd,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, — A  chance  steamer  is  going  to  England, 
and  will  take  this.  I  have  not  yet  received  your  letters,  but  hope 
to  do  so  to-morrow  morning,  and  leave  this  by  midday — not  but 
that,  if  I  had  time,  I  should  certainly  have  stayed  here,  the  state  of 
the  country  being  most  "  parlously  "  interesting.  The  throne  and 
the  debt  are  both  most  difficult  to  support,  and  when  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  late  contest  is  over,  a  Regency  and  a  bankruptcy  may 
take  place  any  day.  The  change  in  the  weather  the  end  of  last 
week  was  so  sudden  that  I  suffered  much  from  it,  but  the 
returning  heat  has  cured  my  cold.  At  Cintra  I  wore  a  great- 
coat, and  the  Seymours  had  fires  every  evening.  This  destroyed 
the  chief  charm  of  the  place,  which  consists  in  its  being  a  refuge 
from  the  sun,  and  obscured  the  blue  sea,  which  should  frame  the 
picture  of  serrated  crags,  groves  of  orange-trees,  and  abundant 
fountains.  The  bad  weather  drove  in  the  squadron,  and  I  dined 
yesterday  with  Napier  (here  Viscount  St.  Vincent),  having  passed 
the  morning  at  Pombal's  country  seat.  I  dine  with  Napier  to- 
day, to  meet  all  the  chiefs  of  the  rebels,  now  amnestied,  and  who, 
but  for  our  intervention,  would  at  this  moment  have  been  masters 
of  the  country.  Napier  is  of  great  use  here,  as  the  Queen  will 
take  home-truths  from  him  no  one  else  could  say  to  her. 

Your  affectionate 

K,.  M.  M. 

\.         ^ ~ 

The  same  to  the  same. 

Seville,  Oct.  2nd,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, — I  hope  to  catch  the  steamer  to  Gibraltar 
on  Monday  next,  and  send  you  this  by  her  return.  The  heat — 
or,  rather,  the  sight-seeing  and  the  heat — have  been  rather  too 
much  for  me,  and  I  have  not  enjoyed  this  place  as  much  as  I 
might  have  done  had  my  nerves  and  stomach  kept  in  a  normal 
state.  Now  that  the  air  is  clear,  and  I  rest  in  the  middle  of  the 


396  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

day,  I  hope  to  be  soon  right  again.  The  glory  of  this  place  is 
its  cathedral — quite  different  in  its  style  of  grandeur  from  all 
Catholic  edifices  I  have  seen  before.  The  dimensions  of  all  about 
it  are  superb,  and  the  ornaments,  though  cumbrous  themselves, 
not  disproportionate.  Murillo  comes  out  here  as  a  great 
historical  painter.  There  are  no  street  scenes  of  his,  such  as 
the  one  at  Munich  you  so  much  admire,  to  be  found  here,  but 
his  saints  and  virgins  are  magnificent.  The  inferior  Spanish 
masters,  too,  suit  the  churches  very  well,  and  have  a  gloomy 
appropriateness  which  makes  up  for  many  of  their  defects.  The 
town  is  very  Oriental ;  each  house  has  its  grated  door  and  its 
pillared  court  within,  like  the  "atria"  at  Pompeii.  This  is 
generally  filled  with  flowers,  with  a  fountain  in  the  middle,  and 
the  walls  all  round  are  hung  with  pictures  and  prints ;  and  the 
grandeur  in  the  portico.  In  the  evening  all  these  are  lit  up, 
and  the  effect  of  the  narrow  streets  is  most  gay  and  pleasant. 
The  authorities  of  the  town  have  been  very  civil,  and  I  dine  with 
the  military  governor  to-morrow.  Potocki  is  still  with  me,  and 
very  facile  a  vivre,  which  is  Equality  of  a  travelling  companion. 
All  the  Spaniards  I  have  yet  seen  anything  of  are  Moderados — 
that  is,  Conservatives — and  thus  I  have  heard  nothing  but  abuse 
of  Palmerston  and  Bulwer.  The  latter  is  accused  of  everything 
that  goes  wrong  in  the  country,  including  the  conduct  of  the 
Queen.  There  is  a  large  liquorice  manufactory  here.  The 
article  grows  wild  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  has  never  been 
cultivated.  They  sell  the  juice  at  about  £50  per  ton.  The 
importation  to  America  to  make  up  the  chewing  tobacco  is  as 
large  as  that  to  England. 

I  am  your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

From  Gibraltar,  Milnes  wrote  to  his  sister,  expressing 
his  delight  with  the  cleanliness  and  beauty  of  the  place. 
From  thence  he  made  his  way  by  steamer  and  diligence 
tv  Madrid,  where  Sir  Henry  J3ulwer  Wa.§  expecting  him. 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  397 

His  arrival  in  the  Spanish  capital  gave  rise  to  remarks 
in  the  press  to  the  effect  that  a  distinguished  English 
traveller  had  been  sent  out  on  a  special  mission  of  a 
delicate  character,  and  much  curiosity  was  excited  in 
Spanish  society  as  to  the  distinguished  stranger — a  mis- 
understanding which  all  who  knew  Milnes  well,  feel 
convinced  he  greatly  relished. 

Malaga,  October  lUh,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  HARRIETTE, — I  duly  received  your  letter  and  its 
enclosures,  and  the  combined  effort  of  the  aunts.  I  suppose  I 
shall  not  hear  again  of  you  till  I  reach  Madrid.  This  I  am  in 
no  great  hurry  to  do,  as  the  Cortes  do  not  meet  as  early  as 
Bulwer  expected.  We  heard  of  the  coup  d'etat  by  which 
Bulwer's  Ministry  was  upset,  on  our  arrival  here;  it  was  a 
matter  of  money,  in  which  the  French  must  always  beat  us,  and 
Serrano,  the  Queen's  admirer,  is  to  be  made  a  duke.  He  per- 
suaded her  to  take  Narvaez  with  much  difficulty.  Palmerston 
told  me  he  thought  it  most  likely  Serrano  was  bribed  by  Louis 
Philippe,  and  would  throw  us  over.  With  all  your  love  for 
queens,  don't  you  think  this  a  very  nasty  state  of  things  ?  I 
am  not  at  all  surprised  at  my  father's  affairs  hanging  fire  at 
this  moment.  If  he  gets  any  money,  while  all  the  world  seem 
to  be  losing  it,  he  must  be  very  lucky.  Tiie  storm,  however, 
must  soon  blow  over,  and  I  have  no  doubt  Peel  will  show  in 
February  that  it  is  just  what  he  anticipated,  and  how  much 
worse  it  would  have  been  but  for  his  divine  prudence  and  fore- 
thought  Sir  R.  Wilson  was  all  civility  at  Gibraltar,  and 

made  himself  as  agreeable  to  us  as  he  is  odious  to  his  garrison, 
whom  he  governs  in  a  foreign  kind  of  way,  stinting  all  their 
amusements  and  liberties.  He  hates  a  single  officer  to  be  on 
leave,  and  thinks  their  military  duties  quite  diversion  enough. 
He  has  no  taste  for  society ;  and  though  he  gives  a  quantity  of 
dinners,  nobody  is  pleased.  To  us  he  was  really  very  agreeable. 
Puke  Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar  and  his  son  happened  to  be  there 


398  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

on  their  way  to  spend  the  winter  with  Queen  Adelaide  at 
Madeira.  We  went  about  everywhere  with  them  over  the 
fortress,  and  on  Saturday  to  Tangiers  in  a  war  steamer,  which 
brought  us  on  here.  Lady  Emmeline  was  very  nice,  and  I  was 
sorry  we  could  not  tempt  her  on  with  us  to  the  poetical  glories 
of  the  Alhambra.  She  had  no  man-servant  with  her,  and 
seemed  anxious  to  get  on  to  Malta,  where  she  winters.  Her 
little  girl  is  very  like  John  Manners's.  The  Rock  must  be  a 
sadly  dull  residence.:  they  try  to  make  it  as  much  like  England 
as  possible,  and  the  villas  might  be  at  Fulham.  The  officers 
make  up  for  the  want  of  amusement  by  luxurious  living,  and 
the  iced  champagne  and  French  menus  must  astonish  any  stray 

Spaniard  who  gets  admitted The  hounds  went  out  for 

the  first  time  the  day  we  left.  The  Spanish  horses  are  hardy 
little  animals,  and  go  far  over  ground  no  English  horses  could. 
I  got  a  ride  into  Africa  at  Tangiers  with  a  French  employe  there 
who  was  ten  years  secretary  to  Abdul  Kader,  and  then  betrayed 
him  to  the  French.  The  town  is  made  up  of  European  con- 
sulates, who  are  well  paid,  and  live  comfortably  in  a  most 
picturesque  Moorish  citadel.  I  think  you  have  got  Hay's 
"  Western  Barbary  "  in  the  library.  The  hotel  is  kept  by  two 
elderly  Scotchwomen,  who  came  over  as  milliners  and  stay- 
makers,  but  found  it  better  to  set  up  an  inn — clean  enough — and 
have  been  there  some  sixteen  years,  speaking  nothing  but  the 
broadest  Caledonian,  and  drinking  toddy  to  a  great  extent.  It 
was  most  absurd  to  hear  them  knocking  the  Moors  about,  and 
asking  us  all  if  we  knew  the  country  about  Elgin.  The  weather 
is  clearing  up  after  some  rainy  days,  and  we  went  last  night  to 
a  ball  on  board  a  French  war-brig  in  the  port  here,  and  thus  saw 
some  of  the  beauties  of  Malaga,  and  very  striking  they  were, 
and  well  dressed  from  Paris.  The  English  Consul's  daughters, 
however,  having  just  come  from  England,  had  the  latest 
fashions,  and  danced,  as  the  German  prince  said,  " unglaullich 
gut."  The  ship  was  dressed  in  the  rich  vegetation  of  this 
climate,  the  mainmast  made  into  a  palm-tree,  and  the  sides 
fringed  with  aloes,  a  large  wreath  of  cypress  mixed  with  flowers 


CHANGE  OF  viflws.  399 

suspended  from  the  top.  The  German  ducalities  go  to  Granada 
in  the  diligence,  and  Patocci  and  I  on  horseback.  A  traveller 
has  just  told  me  that,  by  the  former  way,  he  was  obliged  to  tie 
his  air-cushion  on  his  head,  to  protect  it  from  bumping  against 
the  top  of  the  carriage.  So  the  riding  must  be  at  least  as  con- 
venient. I  expect  to  be  in  Madrid  in  about  a  fortnight.  Write 
there  through  the  Foreign  Office.  Thank  my  aunts — especially 
Fanny,  as  the  busiest — for  their  letter.  Ask  Georgie  if  he 
remembers  me.  Keep  my  father  quiet,  and  I  am 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 


R.  M.  M.  to  Lady  Galway. 

Madrid,  Nov.  l<tth,  1847. 

MY  DEAR  HARRIETTE, — I  shall  probably  hear  from  you  by 
the  next  courier,  but  you  may  like  to  tear  from  me  again,  since 
I  am  alone  here — not  much  alone,  however,  for  I  have  Bulwer's 
house  and  that  of  the  resident  Rothschild  to  dine  at  whenever  I 
choose,  and  have  got  to  know  some  of  the  best  men.  I  have 
also  been  to  see  the  Alveans,  who  are  a  pleasant  family,  the 
mother  good-humoured  and  friendly,  and  the  daughters — 
especially  one,  Charlotte  Bennett's  god-daughter — intelligent 
and  agreeable.  They  have  good  music  at  their  house,  and  seem 
repandues  in  society.  The  state  of  politics  is  inconceivable  till 
you  see  it,  and  rumour  catches  at  everything  and  everybody,  as 
the  enclosed  scrap  of  newspaper  will  show  you.  There  has  this 
week  been  what  they  call  a  crisis.  The  Queen  does  not  like 
General  Narvaez,  her  present  Minister,  and  got  into  communi- 
cation with  some  members  of  her  late  Government,  and  the 
decrees  for  appointing  them  were  all  drawn  out  and  ready  for  sig- 
nature. However,  they  told  the  editor  of  a  newspaper  what  was 
going  on,  and  he  let  out  something  to  some  woman  about  the 
palace,  who  went  and  told  the  Queen-Mother,  who  rushed  to  the 
Queen,  pretended  to  know  all  that  was  going  on,  frightened  the 


400  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUQHTON. 

Queen,  sent  for  Narvaez,  who  found  the  decrees  in  the  Queen's 
possession,  tore  them  up,  and  sent  his  officers  to  see  the  general 
who  was  named  to  succeed  him,  and  conduct  him  out  of  Madrid 
to  the  frontier.  The  whole  intrigue  was  attributed  to  Bulwer,  who, 
at  the  most,  was  in  the  secret;  and  all  the  Government  papers  are 
now  attacking  him  furiously,  while  he  has  no  paper  to  defend 
him,  having  no  money  from  home  to  pay  the  editors.  One 
paper,  at  the  time  of  the  marriages,  cost  us  £250  per  month, 
while  the  French  here  have  any  amount  of  money  and  decora- 
tions to  dispose  of.  ...  The  weather  here  is  a  clear  cold, 
not  disagreeable,  but  requiring  fires  and  care:  the  wind  is 
very  piercing.  Poor  Bulwer  is  left  with  everything  in  his  hands, 
and  is  worked  to  death.  In  the  French  Legations  all  the 
Attaches  act  as  spies,  and  learn  everything;  ours,  on  the 
contrary,  do  not  even  know  the  language.  The  pictures  are 
glorious — Velasquez's  above  all.  The  famous  Raphaels  have 
been  repainted  and  patched  till  they  look  like  tea-boards.  Write 
to  the  Embassy  at  Paris, 'through  Cunningham,  and 

Believe  me  your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 

The  new  Parliament  met  on  November  18th,  but 
Milnes  remained  abroad,  spending  some  time  in  Paris. 
One  of  the  questions  which  agitated  the  political  world 
in  England  was  that  raised  by  the  return  of  Baron 
Rothschild  as  member  for  the  City  of  London.  A 
characteristic  letter  of  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  to  his 
son  is  worth  printing : — 

R.  P.  Milnes  to  R.  M.  M. 

Bawtry,  Nov.  30^,  1847. 

DEAR  RICHARD, — I  am  not  sorry  you  are  missing  this 
Session,  particularly  the  Jew  Bill  (I  don't  think  Mr.  Roth- 
schild's dinners  should  be  set  against  the  strong,  though  silly, 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  401 

prejudice  at  Pontefract),  and  that  there  is  such  plausible  reason 
of  absence.  They  think  you  are  at  Madrid,  I  having-  written  to 
that  effect  a  fortnight  ago  to ,  who  applied  for  a  subscrip- 
tion to  a  girls'  school.  I  told  her  you  had  seen  a  man  killed  at 
a  bull-fight,  which,  I  daresay,  has  gone  the  round  of  every  house 
at  Pontefract.  We  heard  that  Dr.  B.  knows  you  are  on  an 
important  secret  mission.  You  can  get  at  the  Embassy  or  the 
news-room  a  file  of  the  Times,  the  commercial  leaders  of  which 
you  should  get  up.  Think  on  C.  Wood's  statement  on  Friday 
of  sixty  millions  being  sunk  in  railways  within  the  last  year 
and  a  half ;  it  is  hardly  credible,  but  the  fact  must  be  so.  How 
I  wish,  for  the  first  time,  that  Peel  was  in,  to  have  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  bringing  us  to  this  pass,  and  the  responsibility  of 
getting  us  out  of  it !  Free  Trade,  restricted  currency,  and  that 
currency  convertible  to  gold  and  gold  only — we  must  have 
quinquennial  shocks  and  a  constitution  of  iron  to  stand  them. 
Neither  Lord  George  (Bentinck)  nor  D'lzzy  can  argue  it  aright, 
the  former  so  extravagant  and  unfair  «in  his  way  of  stating  it, 
and  D'Izzy  so  unpractical.  I  do  not  know  what  Herries  may 
do.  Peel  will  have  his  scoff  that  we  of  the  land  have  been 
exempted.  The  true  answer,  that  eight  millions  of  Irish  are 
now  to  eat  the  corn  they  before  sent  us,  he  will  also  turn  to  his 
own  favour,  but  who  anticipated  this  ? 

Your  ever  affectionate 

R.  P.  M. 

A  few  days  later  Milnes  returned  to  town,  and 
writing  to  MacCarthy  told  him  of  the  last  step  he  had 
taken  in  severing  himself  from  his  old  political  associates 
by  his  withdrawal  from  the  Carlton  Club. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

London,  Dec.  Zlst,  1847. 

MY  DEAR   FEIEND, — I  send   you   a  line    via  Hawes.     My 
native  land  received  me  a  week  ago ;  I  shall  be  at  home  with  a 


402  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGIITON. 

visit  or  two  to  Ministerial  houses  for  the  vacation.  I  have  not 
seen  A.  Buller,  who  would  have  told  me  a  great  deal  about  you. 

.     I  am  rejoiced  to  have  got well  off.     I  don't 

doubt  that  he  hates  me  for  the  obligation  I  have  conferred  upon 
him  without  being  able  to  satisfy  his  vanity  or  his  ambition. 
Lord  Grey  has  made  somewhat  of  a  hash  of  New  Zealand  and  its 
Constitution,  which  Governor  Grey  has  returned  in  an  envelope, 
and  my  lord  is  obliged  to  eat.  For  my  own  part,  I  could  not 
understand  how  anything  so  rigid  and  unpliable  was  sent 
sixteen  thousand  miles  when  adaptation  to  temporary  circum- 
stances would  have  seemed  the  first  necessity.  I  am  going  to 
break  off  the  last  link  of  Peelery,  the  Carlton  Club,  and  mean 
to  pass  an  observant,  undemonstrative  Session.  Lamartine 
cleared  £12,000  by  the  first  edition  of  his  "  Girondins  "  ;  no  bad 
writing  that.  Lord  John  Russell  has  gone  and  brought  all  the 
Church  about  his  ears  in  re  Hampden ;  but  I  am  now  learning, 
after  having  been  always  tolerant  of  my  enemies,  to  be  tolerant 
of  my  friends.  . 

I  am  your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 


Milnes's  formal  renunciation  of  Conservatism,  and 
his  enlistment  under  the  banner  of  Lord  John  Russell, 
excited  much  interest  amongst  his  friends,  most  of 
whom  had  been  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  Tory 
party  could  never  provide  him  with  a  congenial  home. 
His  failure  to  make  that  mark  in  Parliamentary  life  to 
which  his  talents  entitled  him — though  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  his  own  peculiar  idiosyncrasy — was  also 
attributed  by  some  of  them  to  the  jealousy  he  had 
excited  in  the  Conservative  ranks,  and  they  hoped  that 
better  fortunes  might  attend  him  now  that  he  had 
formally  allied  himself  with  the  opposite  party. 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  403 

Writing  to  him  from  Liverpool,  January  4th,  1848, 
Eliot  Warburton  said — 

I  have  to  thank  you  for  a  very  pleasant  letter.  I  got  it  as 
I  was  going  to  dine  with  Lord  Clarendon,  where  the  intelligence 
of  your  secession  to  the  Johnian  faction  excited  great  interest. 
I  hope  that  now  you  are  actually  committed  to  a  principle,  you 
will  do  justice  to  your  high  talents  and  to  your  future. 

But  strong  as  was  Milnes's  desire  to  attain  a  position 
of  influence  in  politics,  no  change  in  his  political  allegi- 
ance could  affect  the  salient  features  of  his  character. 
As  a  Liberal  he  was  precisely  what  he  had  been  as  a 
supporter  of  the  Tory  Government,  full  of  enthusiastic 
impulses  curbed  by  cynical  reflections ;  always  ready,  as 
he  observes  in  a  letter  I  have  just  quoted,  to  show  a 
delightful  tolerance  to  his  enemies,  but  unfortunately, 
alsof  always  quick  to  see  the  weak  points  in  the  armour 
of  his  friends ;  a  many-sided  man  with  a  keenness  of 
vision  and  a  catholicity  of  sympathy  which  made  it 
absolutely  impossible  that  he  should  ever  sink  into  the 
mere  partisan,  or  should  ever  hope  to  tread  successfully 
the  path  of  the  seeker  after  office.  Still,  what  he  had 
to  do  he  did  with  all  his  heart.  His  present  function 
in  life  was  to  increase  his  stock  of  political  knowledge, 
especially  his  knowledge  of  foreign  affairs.  The  events 
of  1848,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  interested  him  intensely. 
It  is  unfortunate  for  the  purposes  of  this  biography  that 
his  friend  and  correspondent  MacCarthy  came  over  to 
England  in  this  year  for  the  purpose  of  being  married, 
and  that,  consequently,  there  is  a  considerable  break  in 
the  series  of  letters  from  which  I  have  quoted  so  largely — 


404  THE    LIFE    OF  LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

a  blank  which  cannot  be  supplied  from  any  other  sources 
available  for  the  purpose  of  this  biography.  We  know, 
however,  that  no  sooner  had  the  flames  of  revolution 
appeared  in  Paris  than  Milnes  set  off  to  observe  what 
was  happening  there  for  himself.  In  Paris  he  was 
found  by  Mr.  Forster,  who  was  also  attracted  to  the 
spot,  staying  at  Meurice's  Hotel,  "  fraternising  with 
everybody,"  and  making  himself  equally  at  home  in  the 
salons  of  the  Legitimists  and  the  soirees  of  the  Com- 
munists. It  added,  of  course,  immensely  to  his  interest 
in  the  movements  in  Paris  that  he  was  on  terms  of 
personal  intimacy  with  most  of  the  leading  men  in  the 
France  of  that  day,  from  the  King  downwards.  His 
curiosity  was  insatiable,  and  was  in  no  degree  limited 
by  his  likes  or  dislikes.  There,  as  in  London,  he  was 
eager  to  learn  something,  by  personal  intercourse,  o£  the 
characters  of  all  the  men  who  had  made  themselves 
prominent ;  and  in  this  pursuit  of  knowledge  he  had  no 
scruples  as  to  the  personal  reputation  of  those  whom  he 
invited  to  his  table,  or  with  whom  he  entered  into  the 
most  close  and  confidential  intercourse.  But  whilst  he 
was  thus  absolutely  free  from  prejudice  in  the  search 
after  knowledge,  the  reader  must  not  suppose  that  he 
had  no  fixed  views  of  his  own  on  the  great  questions  of 
right  and  wrong  which  were  raised  during  the  storm 
of  1848,  His  sympathies  and  his  principles  were  as 
strong  as  they  had  ever  been,  and  were  all  ranged  on  the 
side  of  Liberty.  Much,  as  he  esteemed  M.  Guizot  and 
the  other  bulwarks  of  the  Orleanist  regime,  he  had  never 
felt  satisfied  with  the  monarchy  of  Louis  Philippe,  or 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  405 

with  the  manner  in  which  the  King's  Grovernment  con- 
trolled the  destinies  of  France.  He  regarded,  therefore, 
with  something  more  than  mere  curiosity  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Republic.  When  in  due  time  his 
old  acquaintance  of  Gore  House,  his  companion  of  many 
a  social  gathering,  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  became 
President,  his  interest  was  still  further  accentuated,  and 
he  was  eager  to  make  use  of  his  confidential  friend- 
ship with  the  President  in  order  to  extend  his  acquaint- 
ance with  men  and  affairs  in  the  country.  But  when 
the  crime  of  the  2nd  of  December  was  committed,  and 
the  Second  Empire  was  founded  upon  a  monstrous 
breach  of  all  law,  Milnes  had  no  hesitation  in  show- 
ing on  which  side  his  sympathies  lay.  In  spite  of 
repeated  invitations,  it  was  years  before  he  could  bring, 
himself  to  resume  his  old  familiar  relations  with 
Napoleon  III.,*  and  from  that  time  until  the  ex- 
Emperor  returned  to  England  a  broken  and  ruined 
exile,  Milnes  declined  by  any  act  or  word  of  his  to 
appear  to  condone  the  coup  d'etat.  This,  it  need  hardly 
be  said,  was  a  much  heavier  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  such 
a  man  as  Milnes  than  it  would  have  been  in  the  case 
of  some  men. 

I  have  anticipated  the  course  of  my  narrative  in 
order  to  mention  it  here,  because  it  is  only  right  that 
those  who  may  be  inclined  to  smile  at  Milnes 's  never- 
tiring  curiosity  regarding  men  and  affairs,  should  not 

*  Once,  I  believe,  in  his  official  capacity  as  Chairman  of  one  of  the 
sections  of  the  1867  Exhibition,  he  did  attend  a  function  at  the  Tuileries, 
but  of  the  old  private  intercourse  there  was  none  for  years. 


406  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

fall  into  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  his  cosmo- 
politanism in  interest  and  in  sympathy  had  dimmed  his 
perception  of  the  great  principles  of  truth  and  justice. 

How  far,  indeed,  this  was  from  being  the  case, 
Milnes,  as  the  reader  will  shortly  learn,  was  soon  to 
give  proof  by  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  many  productions 
of  his  facile  and  graceful  pen.  In  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  18.48,  however,  deeply  as  he  was  interested 
in  political  affairs,  he  was  turning  his  attention  to  a 
more  serious  piece  of  literary  work  than*  any  which 
he  had  yet  undertaken,  apart  from  his  poetry.  This 
was  his  well-known  edition  of  the  "  Life  and  Letters  of 
Keats/' 

E.  M.  M.  to  Lady  Galway. 

March  3rd,  1848. 

DEAREST  HARRIETTE, — The  King  and  Queen  have  arrived  at 
Newhaven,  near  Brighton,  in  a  packet  Palmy  sent  for  them.  I 
saw  the  young  Guizots  to-day;  they  escaped  with  an  English 
companion,  and  are  taken  in  at  friends  of  hers  in  Bryanston 
Square.  The  poor  things  were  wonderfully  cheerful,  and  did 
not  seem  to  fear  anything  grave  for  their  father,  although,  of 
course,  they  are  extremely  anxious,  knowing  nothing  of  him 
since  the  Due  de  Broglie  had  hid  him.  The  Duchess  of  Orleans 
and  her  discrowned  child  are  gone  to  Germany.  Everybody 
says  the  Government  will  last  as  long  as  Lamartine  is  there; 
beyond  him  is  a  fathomless  abyss.  Mademoiselle  Guizot  told 
me  she  saw  the  poor  Queen's  caps  and  bonnets  carried  on  pikes 
through  the  streets.  This  is  better  than  the  heads  of  '91. 
My  father  told  me  to  offer  them  to  stay  at  Bawtry  for  the 
summer,  which  I  shall  do.  Madame  de  Lieven,  whom  I  call 
"  the  Founder  of  the  Republic/'  has  arrived  at  the  Clarendon. 
What  do  you  say  to  going  with  me  to  Paris  at  Easter  ? 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  407 

MacCarthy    is  to  be    married    on   the    25th.      My  father   has 
offered  them  Fryston  for  the  honeymoon. 

Your  affectionate 
R.  M.  M. 

JR.  M.  H.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

September  29tk,  1848. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — We  have  just  had  one  of  those  autumnal 
summers  (one  of  those  Indian  summers  that  old  Gentz  said 
Fanny  Ellsler  gave  him)  which  turn  the  English  year  topsy- 
turvy. It  is  now  over,  and  we  are  back  to  the  old  climate  again. 
Since  I  left  London  I  have  been  visiting  about,  but  fell  upon 
nothing  worth  sending  so  far  as  you,  so  you  must  suppose  me 
just  as  you  left  me — neither  better  nor  worse.  My  father  has  let 
Bavvtry  to  a  railway  director,  whose  wife  promises  to  take  great 
care  of  the  furniture,  declaring  that  "  'er  'ome  is  'er  'obby." 
And  all  our  squabbles  about  railway  compensation  promise  to  be 
soon  at  an  end  one  way  or  another.  I  suppose  we  shall  get  to 
Fryston  during  the  winter,  and  as  the  house  is  diminished  by 
having  unfurnished  all  the  best  rooms,  my  father  will  not  feel 
himself  so  painfully  over-housed  as  he  always  says  he  is  there. 
Great  European  matters  are  still  in  a  state  of  considerable 
fusion — in  fact,  there  is  what  Bancroft  complained  of  in  Salisbury 
Plain,  "a  tottal  want  of  settlement/'  Austria  evincing  the 
wonderful  galvanic  energy  of  old  organisation  in  her  huge  dead 
body.  I  anticipate  war.  The  Italian  question  is  with  France 
one  of  personal  honour  j  a  duel  they  must  fight  if  they  do  not 
get  satisfaction,  however  disagreeable  or  even  unreasonable  they 
think  it.  Austria  has  not  the  pluck  to  adopt  the  only  great 
policy,  that  of  declaring  Lombardy  and  Venetia  independent, 
under  an  Austrian  prince,  but  goes  on  worrying  and  insulting 
the  Italians  as  much  as  ever,  and  doing  all  she  can  to  reconcile 
them  with  the  Piedmontese.  Rome  is  settling  down,  and  has 
got  a  clever  Minister  in  Rossi,  Guizot's  Minister  of  Public  In- 
struction j  and  both  the  Sicilians  and  Neapolitans  have  suffered 


408  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

so  much  in  the  siege  of  Messina  that  some  terms  may  be 
arranged  between  them.  How  curious  the  internecine  hatred  of 
these  two  peoples  is  !  Is  it  in  the  Saracenic  blood  in  Sicily? 
Everybody  is  glad  to  have  Gustave  de  Beaumont  in  London. 
When  he  first  came,  he  spoke  of  the  Republic  comme 
d'une  mauvaise  connaissance,  but  now  is  more  prudent.  Louis 
Napoleon  has  taken  his  seat,  and  will  soon,  in  all  probability, 
achieve  his  own  extinction.  His  policy  would  have  been  to 
have  shammed  ill  till  the  election  for  President.  Louis  Blanc  is 
in  London,  and  has  much  pleased  those  who  have  seen  him  by 
his  earnestness  and  absence  of  egoism.  It  was  reported  that  he 
took  refuge  at  Fryston,  but  I  don't  know  him  to  speak  to.  The 
last  political  event  is  the  death  of  Lord  George  Bentinck,  who 
fell  down  in  a  spasm  of  the  heart,  and  never  moved  again. 
There  is  a  quantity  of  puff  and  froth  about  him  in  the  papers, 
and  he  "  may  stand  in  bronze  in  some  protected  square,"  but  he 
exercised  no  real  influence  over  anything  or  anybody.  He  had  a 
marvellous  memory,  but  so  had  the  learned  pig,  and  I  never  saw 
in  him  a  scintilla  of  statesmanship.  D'Israeli  alone  will  really 
regret  him,  both  because  he  was  fond  of  him,  and  made  an 
excellent  use  for  himself  of  the  dticality  of  his  friend.  Among 
the  blunders  of  my  "  Life  of  Keats  "  I  find  I  have  killed  your 
Archdeacon  Bailey,  who  is  said  to  be  thriving  and  prosperous. 
You  never  mentioned  him  to  me,  and  in  recounting  all  Keats's 
affectionate  intercourse  with  him,  I  never  thought  of  anything 
less  than  that  he  was  alive  and  probably  known  to  you.  I  think 
it  was  Tom  Hood  who  told  me  he  was  dead.  Let  me  know 
about  him ;  he  may  be  archidiaconised  out  of  all  his  poetry  and 
geniality.  At  the  time  Keats  knew  him  at  Oxford  there  must 
have  been  at  least  some  good  receptivity  about  him.  Lord  Elgin 
gives  up  Canada  on  account  of  his  wife's  health,  and  probably 
because  he  cannot  manage  the  Government.  I  really  cannot  fancy 
who  Lord  Grey  will  send.  I  don't  know  a  Grey  who  will  go. 
Buller  would  be  the  man  to  send,  but  then  the  possible  peerage 
must  be  exhausted  first.  Remember  me  most  kindly  to  your  wife, 
and  let  rae  hear  from  you  all  about  yourself  and  your  doings,  and 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  409 

don't  write  comments  on  stale  English  affairs  as  Colvile  does.  I 
see,  you  have  had  a  little  revolt — produced,  I  suppose,  by  your 
new  scheme  of  taxation ;  I  daresay  with  good  reason. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

Alas  !  when  Milnes  next  wrote  to  Ceylon  the  name 
of  the  old  friend  whom  he  had  mentioned  as  fit  for  the 
Government  of  Canada  was  no  longer  to  be  counted 
among  those  of  the  living.  I  have  already  said  something 
of  the  real  union  which  existed  between  Charles  Buller 
and  Milnes,  a  union  which  dated  from  their  early  youth. 
Together  they  filled  a  conspicuous  place  in  society,  as 
colleagues  rather  than  as  rivals,  and  for  Boiler's  genius 
Milnes  always  had  a  real  reverence.  The  premature 
death  of  the  former  fell  upon  a  large  circle  as  a  heavy 
and  unexpected  blow. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Mrs.  HacCarthy. 

Dec.  Uh,  1848. 

DEAR  MRS.  MACCAETHY, — I  can  hardly  answer  your  letter  ; 
I  can  do  no  more  than  say  that  your  happiness  will  always  add 
much  to  mine,  and  that  if  I  have  contributed  to  it  I  can  be  repaid 
in  no  other  way.  Let  Charles  go  on  prosperous  and  contented, 
and  you  with  him,  and  I  shall  always  feel  that  I  have  lived  to 
some  purpose,  and  that  is  no  mean  comfort  in  the  troubles  and 
tumults  of  life.  By  the  same  post  as  yours  came  a  long 
interesting  letter  about  Keats  from  Archdeacon  Bailey.  I  know 
people  cannot  always  be  judged  of  by  their  letters  (though  they 
must  be  like  them  somehow),  but  he  ought  to  be  a  good,  genial 
man,  with  interest  in  books  and  art.  Would  you  give  him  a 
line  to  say  I  will  write  to  him  by  the  next  mail,  and  send  him  a 
copy  of  the  book  ?  Lord  Grey  has  not  behaved  kindly  to  me 
about  my  cousin,  and  I  shall  take  care,  to  keep  pretty  clear 


410  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

of  the  Colonial  Office  for  the  future.  You  will  hear  by  this  mail 
of  Buller's  death.  It  is  an  irreparable  loss  to  me,  for  he  was  the 
single  public  man  with  whom  I  always  sympathised,  and  who 
seemed  to  understand  me — at  least,  as  well  as  I  did  myself  ;  and  I 
feel  so  deeply  what  the  country  has  lost  in  him,  that  all  the 
banal  public  praise,  and  the  comparisons  with  Lord  Georges  and 
Homers,  make  me  only  indignant.  Macaulay's  History  is  out 
this  week.  The  extracts  I  have  seen  are  very  agreeable,  and  the 
book,  apart  from  its  judgments,  will  be  most  instructive.  The 
press  is  certainly  very  vigorous  against  your  rebellion  and  its 
repression,  and  I  have  seen  no  public  defence,  though  one  may 
have  appeared.  I  should  think  some  reduction  of  your  present 
staff  inevitable,  and,  as  long  as  you  are  safe,  desirable.  You 
must  cure  yourself  of  a  longing  for  society  as  well  as  you  can. 
Read  "Paul  and  Virginie "  and  "Atala."  Remember  all 
the  disagreeable  people  you  would  be  forced  to  meet  and  hold 
intercourse  with ;  think  of  any  de'sagr6ments  you  may  have  had 
in  society;  get  up  a  right  colonial  backwoods  kind  of  spirit. 
Look  on  Europe  rather  with  pity  than  interest.  Think  of  the 
Pope  turned  out  of  Rome,  and  you  safe  and  comfortable 
under  a  pepper- tree.  Your  letters  had  now  better  come  to 
26,  Pall  Mall. 

Believe  me  yours,  with  grateful  and  deep  feeling, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

The  close  of  1848  found  Milnes  engaged  in  writing 
"  A  Letter  to  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  "  on  the  events 
of  the  year,  especially  in  relation  to  Great  Britain.  I 
have  not  hitherto  presented  to  the  reader  any  extracts 
from  Milnes's  numerous  pamphlets  and  review  articles, 
nor  do  I  propose  to  interpolate  here  any  lengthy  quota- 
tions from  his  letter  to  Lord  Lansdowne.  It  is,  how- 
ever, a  striking  and  instructive  production,  not  more 
admirable  in  the  style  in  which  it  is  written  than  in  the 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  411 

spirit  which  it  evinces.  English  public  opinion  had 
fluctuated  violently  during  that  year  of  storm  and  revo- 
lution; and  whereas  at  the  outset  there  had  been  a 
widespread  sympathy  in  this  country  with  those  who 
were  fighting  on  the  Continent  against  despotic  rulers 
and  oppressive  institutions,  "  the  swing  of  the  pen- 
dulum "  had  brought  about  that  which  is  apparently  the 
inevitable  reaction,  and  those  who  in  the  early  part  of  the 
year  had  cheered  the  Liberal  forces  throughout  Europe 
in  their  attacks  upon  the  citadels  of  privilege  were  now 
heard  still  more  loudly  denouncing  the  excesses  which 
had  been  committed  in  the  name  of  Liberty,  and  demand- 
ing that  English  sympathy  should  be  withdrawn  from 
the  revolutionary  party,  no  matter  under  what  circum- 
stances that  party  had  been  called  into  existence. 
Milnes  boldly  took  that  which  was  unquestionably  the 
unpopular  side  in  his  own  circle,  if  not  throughout  the 
country,  and  in  his  letter  to  Lord  Lansdowne  set  forth 
the  reasons  which  made  him  feel  that  the  Liberals  of 
the  Continent  had  not  proved  themselves  unworthy  of 
the  sympathy  of  free  England  by  the  course  of  events 
in  1848.  He  condemned  with  severity  the  common 
temper  of  his  fellow-countrymen  with  regard  to  foreign 
affairs. 

Our  disregard  of  the  political  condition  of  other  nations  [he 
wrote]  is  always  liable  to  be  proud,  selfish,  and  unjust.  At  one 
moment  we  reprobate  every  disturbance  of  social  order  in  foreign 
countries,  just  as  if  our  own  order  and  freedom  had  not  been  won 
by  civil  war,  by  resistance  to  power,  and  by  the  punishment  of 
evil-doers  in  high  places ;  at  another  we  exhaust  our  indignation 
and  scorn  against  the  meanness  and  effeminacy  of  men  who 


412  THE    LIFE    OF  LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

submit  to  lie  under  the  terror  of  brute  force,  or,  still  more,  under 
the  oppression  of  an  alien  rule,  and  justify  the  tyranny  by  the 
nature  and  the  habits  of  a  slave.  Forgetful  of  our  own 
ancestors,  who  in  the  field  of  battle,  on  the  scaffold,  in  exile  or 
captivity,  have  raised,  stone  by  stone,  the  edifice  of  our  civil  life, 
we  mock  at  the  sacrifices,  the  labours,  and  the  martyrdoms  of 
other  patriots  who  have  not  succeeded  in  realising  at  once  all 
their  hopes  and  aims,  but  whose  blood  and  tears  -may  be  just  as 
fruitful  as  those  of  our  progenitors.  Unconscious  or  careless  of 
the  many  fortuitous  circumstances  and  natural  advantages  to 
which  we  owe  our  independence  and  our  blessings,  we  look  with 
contempt  on  all  other  less-favoured  nations,  and,  by  a  curious 
confusion  of  ideas,  assume  them  to  be  incapable  of  freedom, 
simply  because  we  do  not  see  them  free.  And  too  often,  thankless 
to  Providence  for  all  He  has  enabled  us  to  do,  we  seem  to  regard 
the  blessings  of  self-government  as  the  special  property  of 
Englishmen,  and  the  more  safely  secured  to  our  possession  in 
proportion  as  they  are  denied  to  the  rest  of  mankind. 

From  this  indignant  protest  against  a  spirit  too 
common  among  Englishmen,  Milnes  proceeded  to  review 
the  condition  of  the  various  countries  in  Europe  which 
had  during  the  year  witnessed  revolutionary  risings, 
pointing  out,  not  merely  the  excuses  which  could  be 
offered  for  the  tumults  that  had  been  witnessed,  but  the 
real  good  which  had  been  left  behind  by  the  efforts  of 
the  revolutionary  party,  and  the  benefits  which  England 
was  certain  to  derive  from  the  spread  of  constitutional 
liberty  upon  the  Continent.  Above  all,  he  was  enthu- 
siastic on  behalf  of  Italy,  and  especially  of  those  plains 
of  Lombardy  which  he  knew  so  well,  and  whose  people 
he  had  learned  to  love  in  bygone  years  of  exile. 

It  is  said  to  be  the  intention  of  the  Austrian  Government 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  413 

to  make  the  Lombardo- Venetian  kingdom  a  second  Poland,  to 
acquire  the  affections  of  the  peasantry  by  confiscating  the  estates 
of  many  of  the  nobility,  and  to  destroy  the  power  of  the  middle 
class  by  reducing  them  as  far  as  possible  to  the  lowest  level.  It 
is  hoped  that  thus  Northern  Italy  may  in  time  be  denationalised, 
and  that  a  race  will  grow  up  without  passions  and  without 
memory.  A  savage  and  cruel  process,  but  perhaps  the  only  one 
possible  if  this  abhorred  authority  is  to  be  maintained.  But  the 
analogy  is  not  sufficiently  exact  to  render  the  experiment  even 
as  hopeful  as  that  of  the  prototype.  Poland  is  surrounded  by 
enemies  animated  with  all  the  bitterness  of  conscious  injustice  ; 
Lombardy  by  compassionate,  if  not  devoted,  friends :  the  Poles 
have  only  found  sympathy  among  men  strange  to  their  race, 
their  language,  and  their  habits ;  Lombardy  finds  sympathy  with 
cognate  nations  to  which  she  is  bound  by  the  common  literature 
and  common  customs:  Poland  to  the  greater  part  of  European 
travellers  remains  but  a  name ;  Lombardy  is  a  familiar  face  to 
thousands  of  strangers,  a  highway  of  civilised  Europe,  and  a 
delightful  sojourn  to  the  lovers  of  what  is  beautiful  in  Nature, 
in  art,  and  in  classic  tradition.  And  France,  whatever  be  her 
adventures  in  government,  will  not  easily  have  so  dulled  her 
imagination  or  quenched  her  enthusiasm  as  to  be  unmoved  by 
appeals  to  the  deeds  of  Marengo  and  of  Lodi,  and  to  suffer  an 
expiring  nation  at  her  very  door  to  cry  in  vain  for  help  and  pro- 
tection, not  against  the  restraints  of  an  orderly  authority,  but 
against  fierce  invaders  intent  upon  her  absolute  destruction. 

In  these  ardent  words  Milnes  in  part  sought  to 
repay  the  debt  he  owed  for  past  love  and  kindness  to 
the  Northern  Italians.  Remembering  that  these  words 
were  written  in  1848  (more  than  ten  years  before  the 
freedom  of  Lombardy  was  finally  achieved  by  the 
bayonets  of  French  soldiers),  they  cannot  but  be 
regarded  as  proof  of  the  prescience  of  the  writer ;  nor 
ought  he  to  be  denied  the  credit  due  to  one  who,  more 


414  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

than  twenty  years  before  the  unity  of  Italy  was  secured, 
could  write  as  follows  regarding  it : — 

To  England  the  peaceful  consolidation  of  Italy  would  bring 
nothing  but  advantage.  It  would  open  to  our  manufactures  a 
market  all  but  closed  against  us  by  high  tariffs  and  annoying 
restrictions  of  every  kind.  The  exportation  of  corn  of  the  best 
quality  would  be  quadrupled  by  good  and  quiet  cultivation,  and 
that  of  silk  and  oil  considerably  increased.  Her  naval  and  com- 
mercial power,  commanding  the  two  coasts,  would  stand  in  the 
way  of  all  monopoly  of  force  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  tend  to 
preserve  the  liberty  of  the  sea.  At  the  same  time,  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Lyons  Railroad  will  facilitate  the  access  of  travellers, 
and  bring  her  within  a  week's  easy  journey.  The  pleasure-hunter 
should  desire  the  true  preservation  of  order  in  Italy  by  pacific 
means,  as  well  as  the  advocate  of  liberty  or  humanity. 

I  need  only  further  quote  from  this  remarkable 
pamphlet  a  few  lines  in  which,  referring  to  the  gloomy 
views  entertained  by  M.  Guizot  (at  that  time  an  exile 
resident  in  a  London  suburb),  Milnes  declared  that  the 
form  and  name  of  the  executive  power  in  France  might 
change,  but  that  universal  suffrage  must  remain.  There 
is  one  striking  passage  in  the  pamphlet,  in  which  Milnes 
paid  a  tribute  of  love  and  reverence  to  the  memory  of 
his  friend  Charles  Buller,  to  whom  he  had  submitted  a 
draft  of  the  letter  shortly  before  his  death. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  pamphlet, 
because  it  not  only  excited  much  attention  at  the  time 
of  its  appearance,  but  involved  Milnes  himself  in  per- 
sonal controversies  of  an  unusually  acrimonious  kind. 

DEAR  MILNES  [wrote  Lord  Brougham] , — I  am  extremely 
obliged  to  you  for  your  kind  present.  I  have  read  it,  and  I  do 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  415 

not  find  any  one  word  of  it  with  which  I  can  in  the  least  degree 
concur.     I  do  not  at  all  deny  the  merit  of  your  bold  and  hope- 
less attempt.     I  only  mean  to  say  it  is  desperate. 
• 

In  a  much  more  rational  though  not  more  character- 
istic spirit  Guizot  wrote  to  express  his  regret  that  he 
could  not  agree  with  Milnes's  optimistic  view  of  the 
results  of  the  year  of  Revolution,  but  saying  that  he  did 
not  like  to  quarrel  with  a  friend,  that  he  had  received 
so  much  kindness  from  Milnes  he  could  only  regard 
him  with  affection  still,  in  spite  of  all  differences  of 
opinion. 

Mr.  Gladstone  to  R.  M.  M. 

6,  Carlton  Gardens,  Feb.  Ibth,  1849. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  do  not  anticipate  the  arrival  of  a 
time  when  I  shall  fail  to  find  much  to  agree  with,  and  much  to 
admire,  in  any  work  of  yours.  Generally,  I  have  read  yonr 
various  tracts  without  any  interruption  whatever  to  these 
courses  of  feeling.  I  cannot  quite  say  that  to-day,  for  in  the 
pamphlet  which  you  have  been  so  kind  as  to  send  me  I  find 
more  than  I  can  quite  subscribe  to  of  the  inclination  to  under- 
take the  function  of  setting  all  countries  right  whenever  we 
think  they  go  wrong ;  but  I  think  that  even  if  I  assume  myself 
to  be  right  in  this  view,  I  should  still  refer  this  bias  more  to 
your  admiration  of  Lord  Palmerston  than  to  an  original  error 
in  your  own  judgment,  which  I  usually  find,  in  your  similar 
publications,  quite  dispassionate  and  acute. 

With  renewed  thanks, 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 

Carlyle's  opinion  of  the  pamphlet  was  much  more 
unrestricted  than  that  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  although  it 


416  THE   LIFE    OF   LOED   HOUGHTON. 

could  hardly  bs  expected  that  he  would  sympathise  with 
many  of  the  sentiments  it  contained.  "  If  you  see 
Milnes,"  said  he  to  a  friend,  who  forthwith  conveyed  the 
message  to  the  author  of  the  letter,  "  tell  him  it  is  the 
greatest  thing  he  has  yet  done :  earnest  and  grave, 
written  in  a  large,  tolerant,  kind-hearted  spirit,  and, 
as  far  as  I  can  see,  saying  all  that  is  to  be  said  on 
that  matter." 

In  the  opinion  of  Carlyle  Jeffrey  concurred  with 
even  greater  enthusiasm.  But,  as  I  have  said,  it  was 
not  all  honey  that  was  offered  to  Milnes  in  return  for 
his  vigorous  and  brilliant  criticism  of  our  relations  with 
Continental  States.  From  many  quarters  adverse 
criticism  as  strenuous  and  far  more  bitter  than  that 
of  Lord  Brougham  was  poured  upon  him,  and  in  one 
quarter  the  reviewer  allowed  himself  a  licence  which 
went  beyond  the  bounds  of  fair-play  or  of  courtesy. 
The  criticism  to  which  I  refer  appeared  in  the  form  of 
a  leading  article  in  the  Morning  Chronicle.  It  was 
manifestly  written — not  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
Milnes's  opinions,  which  had  at  least  been  put  forward 
in  a  grave  and  serious  spirit  not  unworthy  of  the  events 
to  which  they  had  reference — but  in  order  that  a  series 
of  personal  wounds  might  be  inflicted  upon  the  author, 
who  had  frankly  invited  the  judgment  of  the  critics. 
Milnes  was  spoken  of  as  a  "  professional  jester,"  a 
"pantaloon,"  "whom  we  intend  to  expose  before  the 
public."  "We  intend  to  gibbet  him,"  the  writer  went  on, 
"  in  front  of  every  country  of  which  he  has  written,  with 
universal  ignorance  and  omniscient  pretensions."  The 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  417 

article  was  one  of  a  class  now  almost  extinct :  brutal  in 
its  invective,  insolent  in  its  sarcasm,  and  reckless  in  its 
disregard  of  the  decencies  of  debate.  It  might  have 
fallen  fitly  enough  from  the  pen  of  some  Grub  Street 
hack  of  a  former  age ;  and  if  it  had  done  so,  Milnes 
might  well  have  treated  it  with  the  contempt  due  both 
to  the  criticism  and  the  critic.  But  hardly  had  this 
vehement  attack  made  its  appearance,  than  it  became 
known  to  Milnes  that  it  was  not  the  work  of  some 
professional  "  Captain  Bludyer,"  but  of  a  man  who  up 
to  that  moment  had  professed  to  be  a  friend  of  his  own, 
though  in  truth  there  had  never  been  much  sympathy 
between  them — Mr.  George  Smythe,  afterwards  Lord 
Strangford.  Personal  spite  and  jealousy  must  have 
risen  to  no  common  height  in  the  breast  of  Mr.  Smythe 
before  it  could  have  led  him  to  indulge  in  conduct  for 
which  no  canon  of  journalistic  usage  will  afford  any 
justification.  Milnes,  as  the  reader  has  seen,  was  one 
of  the  most  sensitive  of  men.  How  acutely  he  himself 
felt  unfair  and  unkindly  criticism  was  again  and  again 
revealed  to  others  by  the  almost  tender  sympathy  which 
he  showed  with  his  own  friends  when  they  were  the 
victims  of  attacks  of  this  kind.  So  acutely  did  he  feel  the 
manner  in  which  he  had  been  treated,  that  he  resorted 
to  a  mode  of  obtaining  redress  which  had  even  then 
become  obsolete  in  England.  He  challenged  Mr. 
George  Smythe,  naming  Mr.  Eliot  Warburton  as  his 
friend.  Mr.  Smythe  empowered  Captain  Darrell  to  act 
on  his  behalf.  Happily,  the  dispute  terminated 
without  bloodshed,  Mr.  Smythe  making  some  kind  of 


418  THE   LIFE    OF  LOUD   BOUGBTON. 

apology  for  his  wholly  unprovoked  attack  upon  Milnes. 
The  following  note,  which  lies  before  me  as  I  write, 
gives  the  official  version  of  the  conclusion  of  an  episode 
in  Milnes's  life  which  was  altogether  at  variance  with 
its  ordinary  tenor,  but  which  his  biographer  cannot 
avoid  introducing : — 

A  misunderstanding  having  arisen  between  Mr.  Smythe  and 
Mr.  Milnes,  Captain  Darrell  and  Mr.  Warburton  were  engaged 
in  its  arrangement,  and  express  themselves  satisfied  that  the  affair 
has  terminated  with  satisfaction  and  honour  to  both  parties. 

H.  DARRELL,  Capt. 

Army  and  Navy  Club,  ELIOT  WARBURTON. 

April  24^,  1849. 


Eliot  Warburton,  it  should  be  said,  was  not  at  all 
inclined  to  facilitate  a  settlement  of  the  quarrel  on  any 
terms  but  those  which  his  own  principal  insisted  upon. 
He  had  an  Irishman's  love  of  fighting,  and  Milnes  used 
to  tell  in  after  years  of  the  keen  disappointment  of  his 
friend  when  it  became  apparent  that  no  duel  would 
take  place. 

It  is  perhaps  superfluous  to  add  that  the  estrange- 
ment between  Milnes  and  Smythe  which  was  caused 
by  the  article  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  was  never 
removed. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartky. 

(/)  Jan.  1849. 

Foreign  affairs  are  in  a  sadly  distracted  state.  The  French 
at  Borne  are  odious  to  gods  and  men,  having  destroyed  the 
Aurora  of  Guido,  damaged  St.  Peter's  and  the  Pantheon,  and 
slaughtered  some  thousand  Romans.  The  worst  of  this  is  that 
it  places  France  almost  necessarily  in  opposition  to  the  Liberal 


CHANGE    OF   VIEWS.  419 

movement  in  Europe  ;  and  if  the  present  reasonable  and  honest 
Cabinet  are  turned  out  we  shall  have  a  Thiers-Montalembert 
Government,  capable  of  arousing  civil  war  and  throwing  France 
back  to  1780.  The  brutal  Russian  invasion  of  Hungary  is 
looked  on  here  with  the  most  ignorant  eyes,  and  the  real 
enslavement  of  Austria  which  must  follow  it  is  altogether 
unforeseen.  The  Hungarians  ought  indeed  to  have  stuck  to  the 
constitutional  fiction,  "it  is  to  defend  His  Majesty  that  we 
against  him  fight/*  and  then  there  would  have  been  no 
pretence  to  confound  this  great  national  movement  with  the 
democratic  rise  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  I  am  intending  no 
long  absence  from  England  this  year.  Eliot  Warburton  has 
got  somebody  to  lend  him  a  chateau  in  Switzerland,  and  I  may 
spend  a  quiet  month  with  him,  and  a  week  or  two  with 
De  Tocqueville  if  the  present  Government  remains  in.  Lord 
Brougham  makes  a  regular  attack  on  Palmerston's  policy  on 
Friday  next,  the  issue  of  which  is  doubtful,  as  all  but  vital 
questions  will  be  in  the  Lords  with  any  Liberal  Government, 
till  enough  Peers  are  made  to  bring  the  two  Houses  into 
harmony.  ...  j  am  vours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  MILNES. 

The  present  chapter  may  fitly  conclude  with  some 
extracts  from  Milnes's  Commonplace  Book  for  the 
years  1848  and  1849,  in  which  some  of  his  gleanings 
— first  in  Paris,  and  subsequently  among  his  French 
friends  in  exile  in  London — will  be  found  recorded.  As 
before,  I  prefer  to  give  these  extracts  in  Milnes's  own 
words,  brief  and  fragmentary  as  his  sentences  often  are, 
rather  than  elaborate  them  myself. 

Extracts  from  Commonplace  Book. 
THIERS'S  VERSION  OF  THE  AFFAIR  OF  FEBRUARY. 

Mole  told  the  King  about  midnight  he  could  not  form  a 
Government  (he  had  applied  to  Thiers  to  help  him)  ;  barricades 


420  THE   LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

were  everywhere.  Thiers  was  walking  in  his  garden  about  2, 
when  an  aide-de-camp  fetched  him.  They  got  to  the  palace  by 
going  round  about.  The  King  was  all  but  rude  to  him,  asked 
him,  "  Avez-vous  des  Ministres  ?  "  Thiers  said  he  must  name 
some  he  feared  His  Majesty  would  not  like,  Barrot  and  Duvergier. 
The  King  said,  "  Je  m'y  attendais,"  and  ordered  it  to  be  placarded 
that  these  were  His  Ministers.  Owing  to  the  barricades,  the 
police  were  unable  to  do  this.  When  B.  and  D.  came,  they 
insisted  on  the  troops  being  withdrawn.  Thiers  asked  Bugeaud 
how  many  there  were.  27,000  effectives  in  all  Paris,  but  not 
above  17  under  arms;  4,000  in  the  Carrousel  and  Place  de  la 
Concorde ;  none  with  more  than  10  rounds  of  cartridges,  and  no 
food  or  straw  for  the  horses  to  rest  on.  The  Due  de  Mont- 
pensier  said  he  had  sent  for  some  ammunition  to  Vinceunes, 
forgetting  that  the  road  lay  through  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine, 
where  they  must  all  be  taken  (they  should  have  been  sent  by  the 
Seine) .  The  King  spent  two  hours  in  discussing  the  question  of 
the  dissolution,  and  the  Due  de  Nemours  got  it  from  him  at 
last.  On  the  doors  of  the  Queen's  apartment  opening,  Thiers 
saw  Guizot  there  with  the  Queen,  and  the  King  kept  going  in  to 
him.  Thiers  refused  to  dismiss  Bugeaud,  but  consented  that 
an  order  should  be  sent  to  the  troops  to  cease  firing,  and  to  retire 
on  the  Tuileries  to  protect  it.  This  the  troops  did  not  obey,  but 
gave  up  their  muskets  to  the  people,  and  walked  off.  As  the 
popular  furore  increased  (for  Thiers  could  only  get  a  short  way 
from  the  barricades,  but  was  well  received  wherever  he  went,  the 
people  crying,  "  Prenez  garde,  M.  Thiers,  le  Roi  vous  trompe  ") 

came  in,  and  told  Thiers  he  must  retire ;  he  did  not  go 

far  enough.  The  King  said,  "  No,  I  won't  have  M.  Thiers  leave 
me."  T.  insisted,  and  an  ordinance  was  made  out  creating 
Barrot  President  of  the  Council.  The  King  said,  "  Envoyez 
chercher  Guizot  pour  qu'il  le  signe/'  when  there  was  a  general 
huee.  Soon  after,  a  number  of  young  men  came  in  and  told  T. 
the  King  must  abdicate.  The  Princes  came  up,  and  they  told 
them  the  same  thing.  The  Due  de  Nemours  went  into  the 
King's  cabinet,  and  said,  "  Sire,  le  moment  de  notre  sacrifice  est 


CHANGE    OF    VIEWS.  421 

arrive.  II  faut  que  vous  abdiquiez  et  pour  vous  et  pour  moi. 
Je  ne  suis  plus  populaire  que  vous."  The  King  took  it  well, 
and  went  into  the  Queen's  room,  where  there  was  a  great  scene 
and  resistance.  The  Queen  came  out,  and  spoke  bitterly  to 
Thiers,  with  a  seconde  pensee  to  the  Duchesse  d'Orleans,  as  if  they 
had  been  together  in  the  plot.  Thiers  had  before  advised  that 
the  King  should  retire  with  all  the  troops  he  could  get  to 
St.  Cloud,  and  there  parlementer.  He  said,  "  Non,  Vincennes." 
"  Vincennes  est  une  prison,  une  souriciere.  A  St.  Cloud  vous  serez 
libre."  The  King  abdicated  with  great  dignity,  refusing  to 
hurry  himself.  Thiers  went  down  into  the  Place,  and  was 
walking  there  with  Bugeaud  when  the  King  went  away. 

Thiers  sajdng  the  great  fault  of  all,  on  the  part  of  the  King, 
was  allowing  the  agitation  to  get  to  that  height.  The  next 
was,  the  want  of  military  preparation  and  munition.  The  third, 
the  constant  change  of  Government  in  the  last  moments,  which 
made  all  united  and  consequent  action  impossible. 

Louis  Philippe  saying,  "  La  meilleure  camisole  de  force  pour 
un  Franc,ais,  c'est  1'uniforme." 

Louis  Philippe,  speaking  of  society  in  England,  "  here  every- 
thing is  so  well  riveted/' 

The  Queen  of  the  French  praying  so  much  in  her  flight  that 
Louis  Philippe  said  he  was  obliged  to  be  crying  out,  "Mrs. 
Smith,  on  ne  prie  pas  tant  en  voyage." 

Louis  Philippe  saying,  "A  National  Guard  is  like  a  tree  in  a 
flower-pot ;  it  looks  very  pretty  till  it  grows,  and  then  it  breaks 
the  pot — that  is,  the  country — to  pieces." 

Gamier  Pages,  the  Priest  of  the  Republic. 

Louis  Philippe  of  Ireland,  "C'est  une  maladie  incurable, 
mais  jamais  mortelle." 

Pierre  Leroux  recommending  that  no  man  should  have  a  vote 
in  France  who  paid  above  200  fr.  of  impdt. 

Man  at  Barbes's  Club  declaiming  against  the  desecration 
of  the  Trees  of  Liberty  by  the  touch  of  and  presence  of  the 
Clergy. 

The  only  nervousness  Lamartine  showed  in  the  affair  was 


422  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

when,  after  seventy-two  hours  of  struggle  without  sleep,  he 
threw  himself  on  his  bed,  and  asked  his  wife  to  watch  by  him 
for  two  hours,  as  he  then  could  sleep  calmly ;  which  he  did,  and 
rose  quite  fresh  again. 

I  to  Prince  Charles,  "Vous  autres  Frangais  vivez  par 
instinct/'  "  Comme  les  chiens  qui  quelquefois  s'enragent." 

Louis  Philippe  to  me  at  Clermont,  May  27th,  "  I  have 
nothing  now  to  look  to  but  the  long  run." 

Prince  Metternich  told  me  he  had  prepared  for  every 
possible  combination  except  one,  that  of  a  Liberal  Pope. 
Driven  out  of  his  house  in  Eaton  Square  by  an  Irish  family 
next  door  playing,  "  Pio  Nono  "  and  ' '  Mourir  pour  la  patrie  " 
all  day. 

Carlyle  on  Louis  Philippe — "Louis  Philippe,  that  Royal 
Ikey  Solomon — that  Ikey  Basilica/' 

Guizot,  at  Stafford  House,  speaking  of  the  political  security 
of  England,  Madame  de  Lieven  from  the  other  end  of  the  table, 
"That  is  precisely  what  you  said  to  me  the  day  before  the 
Revolution."  M.  Guizot  going  on  to  say  that  it  was  singular 
that  the  country  with  the  most  liberty  should  be  the  only  one 
to  escape  a  revolution.  "  You  forget  Russia,"  said  Madame 
Lieven.  M.  Guizot  replying  that  it  was  still  more  singular 
that  the  two  countries — the  most  and  the  least  free — should 
have  escaped.  "  Ce  qui  montre  combien  etait  pitoyable  votre 
politique  du  juste  milieu." 

Prince  Metternich  vindicating  to  me  the  Galician  massacres, 
on  the  plea  that  the  Polish  nobles  were  about  to  massacre  the 
Austrian  Beamte,  who  only  saved  themselves  and  the  country 
by  rousing  the  peasants  and  using  them  as  a  defence.  He 
allowed  that  money  had  been  given  for  persons  brought  in, 
but  said  this  was  done  to  save  their  lives,  the  offer  being  so 
much  for  each  man  alive,  but  that  in  some  cases  the  peasants 
misunderstood  this.  He  excused  the  small  number  of  troops 
by  the  secrecy  of  the  conspiracy,  which  quite  imposed  upon  the 
Archduke. 

In  Lord  Malmesbury's  "  Recollections  of   an    Ex- 
Minister  "  there  is  a  passage  recounting  his  first  meeting 


CHANGE   OF    VIEWS.  423 

with  the  Orleans  family  at  Claremont,  after  their  arrival 
in  this  country,  which  reflects  somewhat  seriously  upon 
Milnes's  tact.  Lord  Malmesbury  represents  Milnes  as 
talking  to  the  King,  and  informing  him  that  serious 
doubts  were  cast  upon  the  courage  of  the  Due  de 
Nemours ;  whereupon  the  dethroned  monarch  sprang  to 
his  feet  in  a  state  of  great  excitement,  wringing  his 
hands  and  exclaiming,  "  This  is  the  last  stroke,  the  last 
stroke !  "  It  would  have  been  strange  indeed  for  a  man 
in  whom  the  sympathetic  temperament  predominated 
as  it  did  in  Milnes  to  have  so  far  forgotten  what  was 
due  to  the  King's  misfortunes  as  thus  to  wound  him 
by  a  thoughtless  word  in  his  hour  of  greatest  depression. 
I  cannot,  however,  enter  into  a  controversy  with  a  dead 
man  ;  but  against  Lord  Malmesbury's  narrative  of  what 
he  supposed  occurred  I  can  place  the  following  ex- 
tract from  Milnes's  "  Commonplace  Book,"  written  at 
the  time,  describing  that  which  actually  did  happen. 

MY  INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  ORLEANS  FAMILY  AT  CLAREMONT, 
MARCH  22ND. 

The  King  saying  he  was  glad  to  see  me  there  or  in  a  cottage. 
The  Queen  crying,  and  pointing  to  him,  "  II  meritait  un  meilleur 
sort ;  "  of  her  children,  "  Si  bons,  si  devoues  a  la  France."  The 
King  returning  from  his  trisle  promenade,  where  the  National 
Guard  had  insulted  him,  and  the  bayonets  grazed  his  horse's 
neck,  finding  Thiers  (who  had  said,  "  Je  reponds  de  tout ") 
overwhelmed,  and  saying,  "  Sire,  I  am  done/'  the  King  answer- 
ing, "  Mon  cher  ami,  je  vous  Tai  toujours  dit."  The  King 
refusing,  with  violence,  to  abdicate  in  favour  of  the  Duchesse 
d'Orleans.  "  Je  ne  veux  rien  faire  contre  la  loi.  J'abdique ; 
c'est  a  la  Chambre  de  decider  qui  sera  regent — pas  a  moi." 


424  THE   LIFE    OF  LOUD   HOUGHTON. 

Nemours  leaving  his  wife  to  go  with  the  rest,  and  remaining 
alone  to  attend  the  Duchesse  d'Orleans  to  the  Chamber,  and,  if 
necessary,  resign  in  her  favour.  His  cold  and  perfect  courage 
unlike  his  brothers,  who,  though  brave,  are  full  of  passion  and 
sympathy. 

This  statement,  which  so  completely  disposes  of 
Lord  Malmesbury's  story,  is  confirmed  by  the  Dowager 
Lady  Gralway,  who  was  herself  present  at  the  interview 
with  the  royal  family. 

These  extracts  from  Milnes's  note- book  for  that 
stormy  epoch  in  Continental  history  may  fitly  close 
with  one  or  two  reflections  of  his  own,  jotted  down  at 
the  same  time,  and  evidently  inspired  by  the  events 
which  had  just  passed  before  his  eyes. 

It  is  since  I  have  seen  the  governors  of  mankind,  and  what 
they  are  in  comparison  with  the  governed,  that  I  have  become 
Republican  :  now  that  the  superiorities  of  the  distance  have 
vanished,  how  can  I  do  otherwise  than  acknowledge  that 
humanity  is  nearly  a  plane  ? 

It  is  of  necessity  that  the  political  far-seer  should  be  looked 
on  as  a  visionary,  and  his  sight  declared  to  be  a  delusion,  for  if 
it  were  not  so,  he  would  see  no  further  than  other  people. 


CHAPTEE    X. 

MARRIAGE. 

Thackeray — "  Going  to  see  a  Man  hanged  " — Charlotte  Bronte  in  London — 
Milnes  in  Paris — Dines  with  Louis  Napoleon — Sayings  of  Carlyle — Accident 
to  Rogers — Death  of  Sir  Robert  Peel — The  Papal  Aggression — Engagement 
to  Miss  Crewe — Friendship  with  the  Palmerstons — Marriage — Wedding- 
Trip — Fryston  Described — Its  Many  Visitors — Death  of  Eliot  Warburton — 
16,  Upper  Brook  Street — Hospitalities — Friendship  with  Miss  Nightingale 
— Correspondence  with  Mrs.  Gaskell. 

AMONG  the  many  cherished  friendships  which  Milnes 
had  formed  in  the  literary  world,  that  which  united  him 
to  Mr.  Thackeray  deserves  a  word  of  special  mention. 
There  was  something  in  the  genius  of  the  author  of 
"  Vanity  Fair "  which  was  peculiarly  acceptable  to 
Milnes,  and  the  latter  entertained  for  the  great  novelist 
an  admiration  of  no  ordinary  kind.  Their  personal 
acquaintance,  as  the  reader  has  seen,  began  when  they 
were  both  very  young  men ;  and  it  was  maintained,  with 
only  those  occasional  breaks  which  seem  to  be  inevitable 
in  the  lives  of  men  actively  engaged  in  the  various 
occupations  of  London  society,  until  Thackeray's  death 
in  1863. 

The  correspondence  between  them  speaks  of  long 
years  of  close  and  affectionate  intimacy,  not  altogether 
without  occasional  breaks,  due  to  the  temperaments  of 
both  men,  but  never  seriously  affected  by  these  rare 
differences.  "  Dear  Milnes,"  writes  Thackeray  at  a 
very  early  stage  in  their  acquaintance,  when  the  great 


426  TEE   LIFE    OF   LORD    EOUGHTON. 

novelist  was  living  in  Paris,  "the  young  Chevalier  is 
arrived,  and  to  be  heard  of  at  the  Bedford  Hotel  in 
Covent  Garden,  or  at  the  Garrick  Club,  King  Street.  He 
accepts  breakfasts — and  dinners  still  more  willingly." 
There  is  no  signature  to  this  note,  but,  instead  of  signa- 
ture, there  is,  on  the  opposite  page,  a  sketch  from  the 
masterly  pen  of  Michael  Angelo  Titmarsh,  in  which 
Thackeray  depicts  himself  in  the  costume  of  the  period 
— bell-shaped  hat,  high  collar,  velvet  stock,  and  closely- 
buttoned  frock-coat,  on  the  breast  of  which  glitters  an 
immense  star.  Many  of  his  letters  to  Milnes  are  deco- 
rated by  similar  sketches.  As  for  the  dinners  and 
breakfasts  which  Thackeray  was  "  willing  to  accept," 
they  were  not  to  be  counted.  When,  after  his  marriage, 
Milnes  was  enabled  to  keep  a  record  of  the  guests  at 
his  table,  there  was  hardly  any  name  which  figured 
more  frequently  in  it  than  that  of  the  author  of 
"Vanity  Fair." 

They  did  not  always,  however,  meet  merely  for 
pleasant  social  intercourse  in  club  or  dining-room. 
Most  persons  have  probably  read  Thackeray's  inimitable 

account  of  his  "  Going  to  see  a  Man  Hanged."     X , 

the  member  of  Parliament  who  accompanied  him  to 
the  execution  he  describes — that  of  Courvoisier — was 
Milnes ;  and  here  are  two  little  notes  which  bear  upon 
this  rather  unpleasant  engagement : — 

Coram  Street,  June  2nd. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  shall  be.  very  glad  to  make  one  at  the 
hanging,  and  shall  expect  you  here.          Yours  ever, 

W.  M.  T. 


MARRIAGE.  427 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — You  must  not  think  me  inhospitable 
in  refusing  to  sit  up.  I  must  go  to  bed,  that's  the  fact,  or  I 
never  shall  be  able  to  attend  to  the  work  of  to-morrow  properly. 
If  you  like  to  come  here  and  have  a  sofa,  it  is  at  your  service  ; 
but  I  most  strongly  recommend  sleep  as  a  preparative  to  the 
day's  pleasures. 

Yours  ever, 

W.  M.  THACKERAY. 

The  novelist  was  a  frequent  and  an  honoured  guest 
at  Fryston.  After  his  death  his  host  was  wont  to 
tell  how,  on  his  last  visit  to  the  place,  a  mighty  tree — 
the  pride  of  the  woods — was  overthrown  during  a  furious 
gale  of  wind,  and  how,  when  Thackeray  saw  the  fallen 
monarch  on  the  following  morning,  he  shook  his  head 
gloomily,  and  murmured,  half  to  himself,  "  An  omen  ! 
an  omen  ! "  Again  and  again,  on  many  different  occa- 
sions, Milnes  tried  to  hefriend  Thackeray  in  different 
ways,  and  in  the  year  with  which  I  am  now  dealing 
(1849)  he  strove  to  secure  for  him  one  of  the  London 
magistrateships  which  then  fell  vacant. 

Mr.  Thackeray  to  R.  M.  M. 

You  are  a  good  and  lovable  adviser  and  M.P.,  but  I  cannot 
get  the  Magistrate's  place,  not  being  eligible.  I  was  only  called 
to  the  Bar  last  year,  and  they  require  barristers  of  seven  years' 
standing.  Time  will  qualify  me,  however,  and  I  hope  to  be  able 
to  last  six  years  in  the  literary  world ;  for  though  I  shall  write, 
I  dare  say,  very  badly,  yet  the  public  won't  find  it  out  for  some 
time,  and  I  shall  live  upon  my  past  reputation.  It  is  a  pity,  to 
be  sure.  If  I  could  get  a  place  and  rest,  I  think  I  could  do 
something  better  than  I  have  done,  and  leave  a  good  and  lasting 
book  behind  me ;  but  Fate  is  overruling.  I  have  written  to 
thank  Ij.  for  his  kind  letter,  and  to  beg  him  to  remember  me  if 


428  THE   LIFE   OF  LOUD   HOUGHTON. 

any  opportunity  occurs  of  serving  me.  I  wonder  whether  Lord 
Palmerston  could  ?  But  I  would  rather  be  in  London.  Thank 
you  for  thinking  of  me,  and  believe  that  I  am  grateful. 

Always  yours,  dear  Milnes, 

W.  M.  THACKERAY. 

It  was  towards  the  close  of  this  year  (1849)  that 
Thackeray  made  the  acquaintance  of  one  who  was  at 
once  the  most  ardent  admirer  of  his  genius,  and  his 
most  formidable  rival  in  the  art  of  fiction,  Charlotte 
Bronte.  The  world  has  heard  the  story  of  how  the 
"  austere  little  Joan  of  Arc "  went  up  to  London  to 
reveal  her  identity  to  her  publishers,  and  how  the  secret 
of  her  authorship  having  been  hitherto  successfully 
concealed,  she  made  the  personal  acquaintance  of 
Thackeray  towards  the  close  of  1849.  Milnes,  as 
befitted  a  loyal  Yorkshireman,  was  immensely  interested 
by  the  fact  that  the  authoress  of  "  Jane  Eyre  "  had 
been  discovered  under  the  humble  roof  of  a  West 
Riding  parsonage  ;  he  was  eager  to  make  Miss  Bronte's 
acquaintance,  and  during  the  too  brief  remainder  of  her 
life  he  showed  himself  to  be  her  constant  friend.  Nor, 
as  the  reader  will  presently  learn,  did  his  active  friend- 
ship cease  at  her  death.  The  many  who  have  taunted 
Milnes  because  of  his  passion  for  making  the  acquaint- 
ance of  people  of  genius  have  overlooked  the  fact,  proved 
in  innumerable  instances,  that  the  interest  and  friendship 
which  the  genius  had  aroused  was  extended  to  his  or 
her  friends  and  connections.  Many  a  widow  and  many 
an  orphan  had  occasion  to  be  thankful  that  the  husband 


MARRIAGE.  429 

or  father  had  during  his  lifetime  excited  the  admiration 
of  Milnes.  Years  after  the  death  of  Charlotte  Bronte 
we  find  him  trying  to  smooth  the  path  of  her  father, 
and  to  secure  preferment  in  the  Church  for  her 
husband. 

I  am  speaking  now,  however,  of  the  year  1849, 
which  first  saw  Charlotte  Bronte's  entrance  into  the 
literary  society  of  London.  Before  me  as  I  write  is  a 
little  note  penned  in  the  beautiful  hand  of  Thackeray 
upon  a  card,  which  in  its  interest  is  not  surpassed  by 
any  other  letter  among  the  many  thousands  left  behind 
him  by  Milnes. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES  [it  runs], — Miss  Bronte  dines  here  to- 
morrow at  7.  If  you  are  by  any  wonder  disengaged,  do 

come  to 

Yours  truly, 

W.  M.  THACKERAY. 

The  invitation  is  dated,  "  13,  Young  St.  Tuesday." 
It  is,  alas  !  the  only  record  that  remains  of  a  meeting, 
the  interest  of  which  it  would  be  hard  to  exaggerate. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

MarcJi&th,  1849. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — The  general  tone  of  your  letters  is  very 
comfortable.  I  really  see  no  pecuniary  difficulties  that  you  may 
not  get  over  in  a  couple  of  years ;  and  if  you  keep  your  health 
all  will  go  well.  I  have  no  doubt  that  your  appointment  will 
come  before  the  Committee;  and  as  the  Peelites,  who  have  got 
the  Committee,  are  not  particular  friends  of  mine,  it  is  as  well 
that  I  should  appear  in  the  matter  as  little  as  possible.  The 
news  from  India  is  frightful/  and  I  trust  may  have  no  echo 

*  The  Sikh  war  was  then  going  on. 


430  THE  LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

in  your  valleys.  Lord  Gal  way's  youngest  brother  is  severely 
wounded,  and  we  are  in  deep  anxiety  about  him.  Foreign 
affairs  are  thickening.  Russia,  hitherto  so  quiet,  has  begun  to 
move,  and  has  demanded  the  passage  of  the  Dardanelles,  which 
is  the  next  thing  to  the  possession  of  Stamboul.  The  position 
is  critical.  My  brochure  has  had  some  success — at  least,  as 
shown  by  objections  and  abuse.  I  am  writing  a  sort  of 
supplement  to  it  in  the  Edinburgh.  Peel  has  made  a  great 
speech,  proposing  the  re-settlement  of  Ireland  by  the  Govern- 
ment. It  was  very  ill  taken  by  the  House,  but  will  command 
great  attention  in  the  country.  There  is  but  one  impression 
against  Gough  (Commander-in-Chief  in  India).  Every  letter 
from  the  Army  confirms  it.  There  is  also  a  strong  feeling 
respecting  Lord  Hardinge's  settlement  of  the  Punjaub.  People 
ask,  Why  were  they  allowed  to  rise  again  to  this  height  of 
power? 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 


R.  M.  M.  to  Mrs.  MacCarthy. 

26,  Pall  Mall,  May  19/tf,  1849. 

DEAB  MRS.  MACCARTHY, — Your  kind  letters  have  deserved 
a  speedy  answer,  but  I  can  assure  you  I  had  every  intention  of 
writing  by  the  last  mail,  and  was  only  prevented  by  a  dis- 
agreeable accident.  I  hope  by  this  time  Charles  is  returned 
from  his  tour,  which  will  be  most  useful  to  him  before  he  enters 
on  his  Tennent-right.*  Indeed,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  great 
scandal  that  the  officials  of  the  Island  have  so  rarely  visited  its 
remoter  parts ;  and  I  hope  to  hear  that  Charles  will  repeat  his 
tour,  and  make  himself  thoroughly  master  of  the  habits,  manners, 
and  motives  of  the  out-of-the-way  natives.  Your  father  will  tell 
you  what  has  passed  in  the  Committee,  and  I  really  think  there  is 
every  probability  that  the  Colonial  Office  will  come  out  of  it 

*  MacCarthy  had  been  appointed  Secretary  in  the  Government  of 
Ceylon  in  succession  to  Sir  James  Emerson  Tenneut. 


MARRIAGE.  431 

without  reproach  of  any  kind.  The  public  attention  is  so  fixed 
for  the  moment  on  Canada  that  nothing  else  is  likely  to  excite 
much  interest,  although  the  excitement  seems  to  me  to  be  of  a 
low  and  temporary  character ;  more  like  the  Porteous  row,  or 
Lord  George  Gordon's  riots,  than  the  harbinger  of  civil  war. 
Lord  Stanley  will  make  all  he  can  of  the  case,  even  at  the  risk 
of  increasing  the  colonial  fury ;  but,  1  hope,  without  success. 
Lady  Grey  told  Lord  Elgin's  sisters  that  eggs  were  not  dignified 
missiles,  but  much  safer  than  bullets ;  and  as  the  Colonial  Office 
will  stand  by  Lord  Elgin,  he  can  stand  his  insulted  waistcoat. 

I  am  delighted  that  my  Roman  friends  are  showing  a  little 
energy  in  deeds  as  well  as  words.  Nothing  can  be  stupider  than 
General  Oudinot's  advance  on  Rome.  It  was  done  with  the 
blindest  French  vanity  and  disregard  of  the  feelings  of  other 
men ;  it  was  the  worst  gate  he  could  attack  at — both  from  the 
narrow  street  on  the  other  side,  and  because  every  cannon-ball 
must  run  the  risk  of  injuring  St.  Peter's  or  the  Vatican.  The 
feeling  against  the  temporal  Government  of  the  Pope  seems, 
to  my  great  surprise,  to  be  quite  unanimous,  including  the  old 
fanatics  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tiber.  The  return  of  prelatic 
Government  seems  really  impossible  under  any  circumstances, 
and  a  military  occupation  by  any  foreign  Power  will  only  hoard 
up  vengeance  and  disgust.  The  Italians  spoil  their  case  sadly 
in  Northern  esteem  by  their  comical  bombast,  their  bulletins 
about  Brennus  and  the  Gauls,  and  their  vaunts  of  eating  every- 
body up,  horses  and  all.  Venice  still  holds  out,  and  the  em- 
barrassment of  the  Austrian  Government,  with  all  their  Russian 
assistance,  makes  me  really  hope  that  it  may  realise  after  all  a 
certain  independence.  The  foolish-wise  King  of  Prussia  fancies 
that  all  will  be  right  in  Germany  if  he  can  get  the  kings  to 
offer  a  Liberal  Constitution,  whereas  it  is  exactly  the  contrary. 
Whatever  they  propose  (except  their  own  abdications)  is  received 
with  anger  and  hatred,  and  takes  no  root  in  the  country. 
Things  are  more  improbable  than  the  renewal  of  the  Federation 
of  the  Rhine,  and  the  disruption  of  the  Prussian  kingdom  by 
the  proceedings  of  its  dilettante  king.  I  met  Mrs.  Eastlake  at 


432  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

dinner  lately,  and  she  spoke  of  the  great  pleasure  her  sister  had 
had  in  finding  such  a  colonial  Companion  as  you.  I  own  I 
cannot  realise  to  myself  that  English  people  in  a  colony  should 
not  feel  so  strongly  their  mutual  dependence  for  agreeable 
life  as  to  prevent  them  from  falling  into  such  unreasonable 
squabbling  and  jealousy  as  you  describe.  I  suppose  our  unsocial 
national  character  comes  out  to  great  disadvantage,  for  I  have 
seen  and  heard  how  pleasantly  French  people  get  on  in  similar 
circumstances.  I  am  sure  the  real  remedy  must  be  to  get  as 
many  local  interests  as  possible,  and  to  depend  as  little  as  one 
can  on  the  excitement  of  the  bi-monthly  mail.  I  dare  say  this 
is  fine  talking,  which  I  should  be  the  last  to  practise  myself  ;  but 
surely  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  the  relation  of  the 
English  Government  towards  them,  must  open  a  great  field  for 
something  more  than  the  gratification  of  curiosity,  and  there 
must  be  some  use  for  your  many  talents  in  the  really  important 
position  you  now  hold. 

I  went  to  Paris  at  Easter  with  Count  D'Orsay,  who  is  now 
a  sort  of  Chamberlain  to  the  President.  I  dined  with  my  old 
London  friend  Louis  Napoleon,  who  did  not  seem  at  all  to 
enjoy  his  high  state,  but  to  be  quite  affaisse  with  work  and 
anxiety.  With  the  exception  of  one  or  two  spurts  of  hasty  will, 
he  has  been  acting  as  a  very  good  constitutional  King,  support- 
ing his  Ministers  courageously,  and  giving  them  every  chance. 
Nothing  but  some  strange  blunder  can  overturn  him.  The 
Legitimists  will  not  be  so  numerous  in  the  new  Assembly  as  was 
expected,  and  the  leading  Democrats  and  Socialists  will  all  be 
returned.  I  think  this  is  all  right,  as  I  am  sure  dangerous 
politicians  are  safest  in  the  Avails  of  a  political  assembly.  We 
do  not  know  how  much  of  our  peace  of  last  year  we  owe  to 
having  Fergus  O'Connor  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Macaulay's  success  has  been  enormous;  indeed,  such  as  to 
convince  one  his  book  cannot  be  worth  much — that  is,  in  a  high 
sense,  for  in  a  low  one  his  two  volumes  have  got  him  £10,000. 
A  young  officer  said  to  me,  "  That  is  what  I  call  a  history.  We 
took  five  copies  at  our  depot."  Thackeray  is  winning  great 


MARRIAGE,  433 

social  success,  dining  at.  the  Academy,  Sir  R.  Peel's,  &o.  I 
doubt  whether  he  will  be  much  the  happier  for  it,  though  I 
think  people  generally  are  the  better  for  satisfied  vanity.  A 
bomb  has  fallen  into  the  midst  of  the  religious  world  in  the 
shape  of  a  book  called  "  The  Nemesis  of  Faith/'  by  a  brother 
of  Froude,  the  dead  Puseyite.  It  is  a  sort  of  religious,  anti- 
religious  Wilhelm  Meister,  and  balances  itself  between  fact  and 
fiction  in  an  uncomfortable  manner,  though  with  great  ability, 
and  has  caused  the  poor  man  to  lose  his  Fellowship  and  a  college 
in  Van  Diemau's  Land,  and  to  fall  into  utter  poverty.  We  call 
ourselves  a  free  people,  and  what  slaves  of  opinion  we  are  after 
all !  Brougham  said  the  other  day,  "  The  Apostles  would  have 
had  no  chance  against  the  Times."  There  was  a  great  rumour 
of  a  change  or  modification  of  Government  about  the  Navigation 
Laws.  I  think  the  latter  would  have  been  the  more  probable. 
I  was  sorry  that  the  House  of  Lords  again  degraded  itself  by 
not  voting  as  the  Peers  thought.  Stanley  did  all  he  could  to 
inspire  them,  but  the  Fabian  Duke  succeeded  in  checking  his 
zeal ;  and  a  proxy  majority,  which  cannot  be  repeated  in  the 
Committee,  saved  the  Government.  The  Bishop  of  Oxford 
brings  forward  an  Anti-Slavery  movement,  which  will,  in  all 
probability,  be  carried,  but  will  not  affect  the  ultimate  success 
of  the  Bill. 

My  family  are  pretty  well ;  my  sister  in  town,  bringing  out 
a  young  sister-in-law ;  my  aunts  at  Torquay,  and  my  father  at 
Fryston.  He  has  had  a  considerable  sympathy  with  Hudson,  on 
whose  head  has  fallen,  most  unjustly,  all  the  crash  of  the  bad 
railway  system.  Hudson  has  done  exactly  what  the  shareholders 
all  the  time  intended  him  to  do,  and  which  plan,  if  it  had  suc- 
ceeded in  making  the  branch  lines  remunerative,  would  have  been 
regarded  as  a  measure  of  courageous  prudence,  but  which,  having 
failed,  is  now  called  swindling.  The  truth  is,  it  was  neither  one 
nor  the  other,  but  merely  gambling ;  and  the  shareholders,  having 
lost,  are  now  kicking  over  the  table  and  knocking  down  the 
croupier. 

The  Exhibition  is  an  interesting  one.      A    dead    lion,  by 


434  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

Landseer,  is  appropriately  hung  between  Guizot  and  Metternich. 
There  is  a  Webster  as  good  as  Wilkie,  and  the  portrait  of  a 

boy,  by   B ,  which  is   Gainsborough  without  his  powdered 

mannerism.  Jenny  Lindas  marriage  is  again  deferred.  She 
cannot  make  up  her  mind  to  marry  a  very  good,  good-looking, 
infinitely  stupid  man  she  has  engaged  herself  to,  and  at  the  same 
time  has  not  the  cruelty  to  throw  him  over ;  so  she  goes  to 
Paris,  to  Mrs.  Grote,  for  a  month  or  two,  when  she  is  to  give 
her  final  decision.  She  really  dislikes  the  stage,  and  does  not 
seem  to  like  anything  else.  We  are  to  have  Meyerbeer's 
Prophete,  which  is  laboriously  grand,  with  my  genius, 
Viardot,  later  in  the  season.  I  will  write  to  Archdeacon 
Bailey  by  this  mail.  Pray  tell  him  I  am  exceedingly  obliged 
by  his  letters  and  presents — a  most  kind  return  for  my  literary 
homicide.  The  most  singular  event  of  the  moment  is  the  large 
number  of  the  French  army  which  have  voted  for  the  Socialists. 
Cobden  says,  "  The  extinguisher  is  catching  fire,  and  they  will 
be  obliged  to  look  for  some  other  material  for  that  article." 

I  must  tell  you  what  happened  about  your  letter  and  a 
somnambulist  at  Paris.  I  took  it  just  as  received,  unopened,  to 
her,  and  directly  she  took  it  she  said,  "  Je  vois  deux  personnes, 
un  monsieur  et  une  dame/'  She  described  you  both  very  well, 
and,  after  thinking  some  time,  said  you  had  been  lately  married. 
Then  said  MacCarthy  would  have  a  brilliant  career,  &c.,  and  a 
good  deal  of  commonplace.  But  the  detection  of  the  two  letter- 
writers,  which  I  did  not  know  myself,  was  curious.  . 
Lord  Palmerston  comes  well  out  on  the  Sicilian  papers,  which 
show  clearly  that  we  were  asked  to  interfere,  and  did  not  do  it 
out  of  any  meddling  spirit.  The  Roman  Government  have  just 
sent  an  envoy  here,  and  I  don't  know  what  Exeter  Hall  will  say 
about  our  meddling  to  restore  the  Pope. 

Yours  very  truly, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

Milnes  about  this  time  seems  to  have  seen  a  great 
deal  of  Carlyle,  and  his  notebooks  contain  many  quota- 


MARRIAGE.  435 

tions  from  the  vigorous  speeches  of  which  the  author  of 
"  Sartor  Hesartus  "  was  in  the  habit  of  delivering  him- 
self. A  few  of  them  will  well  bear  repetition. 

Extracts  from  Commonplace  Book. 
SAYINGS  OF  CARLYLE. 

"  Voltaire's  '  Eerasez  Tlnfame '  had  more  religious  earnestness 
in  it  than  all  the  religions  of  nowadays  put  together/* 

"  If  Christ  were  to  come  to  London  now,  He  would  not  be 
crucified.  Oh  no  !  He  would  be  lionised,  asked  out  to  dinner  to 
hear  the  strange  things  He  had  got  to  say,  and  the  bettermost 
people  would  wonder  that  a  man  who  could  be  so  sensible  on 
some  points  should  be  so  foolish  on  others,  would  wish  He  were  a 
little  more  practical,  and  so  on." 

"  Conversation  with  Ranke  is  like  talking  to  a  rookery/' 

Cameron  showing  us  an  idealised  portrait  of  Schiller,  Carlyle 
merely  said,  <:  He  was  a  man  with  long  red  hair,  aquiline  nose, 
hollow  cheeks,  and  covered  with  snuff." 

"  Charles  Knight  makes  of  himself  a  terrible  ladle  of  twaddle 
to  mankind/' 

"I  know  no  guilt  like  that  of  incontinent  speech.  How 
long  Christ  was  silent  before  He  spoke  !  and  how  little  He 
then  said  ! " 

"  Harriet  Martineau  in  her  sick-room  writes  as  if  she  were  a 
female  Christ,  saying,  '  Look  at  me ;  see  how  I  am  suffer- 
ing!-' 

"  If  Beelzebub  were  to  appear  in  England,  he  would  receive 
a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Manchester  Athenseum,  as 
Eugene  Sue  did,  requesting  the  honour  of  his  interesting 
company,  and  venturing  to  hope  for  an  address." 

"  Keats  is  a  miserable  creature,  hungering  after  sweets  which 
he  can't  get ;  going  about  saying, '  I  am  so  hungry  ;  I  should  so 
like  something  pleasant/ '' 

"  Shelley  is  always  mistaking  spasmodic  violence  for  strength. 
I  know  no  more  urned  books  than  his.  It  is  like  the  writing  of 


436  THE    LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

a  ghost,  uttering  infinite  wail  into  the  night,  unable  to  help 
itself  or  any  one  else." 

"  Never  write  what  you  can  say,  and  never  say  what  you  can 
write." 

"Cobden  is  an  inspired  bagman,  who  believes  in  a  calico 
millennium.  He  is  always  praising  America  to  me.  I  said 
to  him,  ( What  have  the  Americans  done  but  beget,  with  un- 
exampled rapidity,  twenty  millions  of  the  greatest  bores  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  ? '  " 

"  Poor  Guizot !  There  he  sat  in  his  garret,  full  of  high 
thought  and  fine  theories,  and  visited  sometimes  by  divine 
lights,  and  then  comes  the  devil  and  tempts  him  with  Secre- 
taryships of  State  and  Presidency  of  the  Council,  and  such 
like,  and  leads  him  on  and  on  into  lies,  and  filth,  and  darkness, 
and  then  all  at  once  lets  him  go,  and  down  he  falls  into  infinite 
night.  I  quite  approve  of  Carnot  not  wanting  education  for 
Parliamentary  men.  He  will  thus  get  fewer  of  the  inane, 
conceited,  sniggering  apes  of  the  Dead  Sea  we  have  in  ours." 

"  I  cannot  stand  Disraeli  trying  to  force  his  Jewish  jackass- 
eries  on  the  world." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  Commonplace  Books 
are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  sayings  of  Carlyle. 
I  find  in  the  volume  from  which  I  have  quoted 
numerous  records  of  the  conversations  of  Guizot, 
Bulwer,  King  Louis  Philippe,  De  Tocqueville,  Grote, 
Pusey,  Spedding,  Thackeray,  Lord  Morpeth,  Bunsen, 
Macaulay,  Charles  Buller  (alas  !  his  last  appearance  in 
any  of  the  volumes),  Tennyson,  Sir  David  Brewster, 
Professor  Airy,  Whewell,  and  others  too  numerous  to 
be  named.  The  list  shows  the  variety,  as  well  as  the 
extent,  of  Milnes's  friendships.  Nor  are  these  Common- 
place Books  without  a  distinct  value  as  casting  light 
upon  his  character  and  the  influences  which  surrounded 


MARRIAGE.  437 

him  at  various  periods  in  his  career.  Thus  at  the  time 
when  Milnes  was  feeling  most  keenly  the  mortification 
of  being  passed  over  in  favour  of  Mr.  Smyth  by  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  he  is  found  noting  the  advice  given  to 
him  by  Carlyle.  "  It  seems  to  me,"  said  the  great 
author,  "  that  the  chief  thing  for  you  to  do  as  regards 
Peel,  is  to  look  clearly  into  yourself,  and  try  and  find 
out  what  it  was  that  prevented  him  promoting  you  as 
you  seem  to  have  deserved."  Probably  the  best  advice 
that  was  ever  given  to  any  man  under  such  circum- 
stances. 

Again,  in  these  volumes  Milnes  allows  the  reader  to 
perceive  the  readiness  with  which  he  himself  acknow- 
ledged his  faults.  If  a  story  or  a  smart  saying  tells 
against  himself,  he  records  it  just  as  readily  as  though 
it  told  against  an  enemy  or  a  friend.  There  were  many 
who  criticised  his  foibles ;  there  was  no  one  who 
perceived  them  more  clearly  than  himself.  As,  for 
example  : — 

Lady  Harriet  Baring*  to  me,  on  some  one  saying  I  had 
accepted  a  Colonial  appointment :  "  I  hope  not ;  we  shall  have 
no  one  to  show  us  what  we  ought  not  to  do  and  say/' 

Again,  among  his  own  sayings,  which  he  constantly 
records  in  these  books,  just  as  he  records  the  sayings  of 
others,  we  come  across  such  revelations  of  the  real  man 
as  may  be  found  in  sentences  like  this : — 

You    complain    that    you    are     misunderstood     and     mis- 
represented.    Why,    the    chief   difficulty   in   life   for  any  man 
worth   anything  is  to  get  himself  in  any  way  understood,  and 
his  daily  business  is  to  live  down  misrepresentation. 
*  Lady  Ashburton. 


438  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   SOUGRTON. 

During  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1849  Milnes 
was  engaged  in  writing  in  the  reviews  upon  the  state 
of  Europe,  replying  to  the  critics  who  had  attacked  the 
opinions  expressed  in  his  pamphlet,  and  at  the  same 
time  dealing  with  one  of  those  questions  of  social  life 
which  had  so  great  an  interest  for  him — the  reformation 
of  juvenile  offenders.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  the 
political  condition  of  the  country.  When  he  severed 
the  last  links  that  bound  him  to  the  Conservative  party, 
he  gave  free  sway  to  the  Liberal  instincts  that  were 
strong  within  him,  and  pressing  forward  with  ardour  in 
the  new  path  he  had  entered  he  soon  found  that 
he  was  threatening  to  distance  the  associates  whom 
he  had  now  joined.  The  condition  of  Ireland,  for 
example,  was  a  question  upon  which  his  opinions  were 
as  much  in  advance  of  those  of  the  Whigs  as  they  had 
been  in  advance  of  those  of  the  Conservatives.  He  felt 
the  miseries  of  that  portion  of  the  United  Kingdom  as 
profoundly  as  he  had  felt  the  sufferings  of  Italy. 

Writing  to  MacCarthy,  August  17th,  1849,  he 
says : — 

The  Queen's  reception  in  Ireland  has  been  idolatrous, 
utterly  unworthy  of  a  free,  not  to  say  ill-used,  nation.  She  will 
go  away  with  the  impression  it  is  the  happiest  country  in  the 
world,  and  doubt  in  her  own  mind  whether  CXConnell  or  Smith 
O'Brien  ever  existed. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Woburn,  llth  (?  Dec.,  1849). 

DEAR  FBIEND, — A  merry  Christmas  to  you  in  the  cinnamon 
woods,  merrier  than  it  is  to  much  of  England,  which  is  in  a 
state  of  panic  and  anger  that  I  have  hardly  yet  seen.  There 


MARRIAGE.  439 

must  be  the  sort  of  convulsion  in  the  agriculture  of  the  greater 
part  of  England  that  there  was  in  the  monied  interests  in  the 
autumn  of  '47.  Farms  are  thrown  on  the  landlords'  hands; 
labourers  discharged ;  fat  beasts  sold  for  the  price  they  were 
bought  lean  ;  and  so  on.  You  may  conceive  what  this  position 
is  as  a  beginning  to  persons  mortgaged  for  at  least  half  their 
rent-roll ;  and  if  it  is  to  go  on,  and  Califomian  gold  were  to  flow 
in  faster,  I  really  anticipate  frightful  ruin  wherever  there  is  not 
both  capital  and  ability. '  The  Session  promises  to  be  of  the 
stormiest,  and  the  first  onslaught  will  be  on  Lord  Grey. 
Perhaps  a  real  tip-top  man  would  sacrifice  himself  to  his  party, 
but  he  is  much  more  likely  to  drag  down  Russell  with  him, 
out  of  the  chivalrous  spirit  which  Johnny  inherits  from  his 
acephalous  ancestor.*  I  cannot  think  much  can  be  made  out  of 
your  case.  Indeed,  if  properly  managed,  Tennent's  evidence 
might  blow  up  the  whole  Committee.  Everything  would  depend 
upon  his  being  the  first  witness,  and  having  his  facts  up 
incontestably.  Lord  John  is  not  here,  but  the  house  is  a  sort  of 
focus  of  political  gossip,  a  grand  repertorium  of  mares'  nests. 
Sir  Robert  Peel's  visit  here  grew  into  a  coalition  at  once,  and 
every  day  has  its  dissolution.  The  great  Stafford  [Mr.  Augustus 
Stafford]  has  not  descended  from  Ireland,  but,  like  Lord 
Clarendon,  writes  most  gloomily ;  he  thinks  the  coming  winter 
more  distressful  than  the  two  preceding.  The  Poor  Law  is 
devouring  the  land.  With  my  Communistic  velleite  I  never  liked 
the  application  of  the  droit  de  travail — or,  rather,  I  would  have 
made  it  a  real  right  of  work.  Carlyle,  in  Fraser,  proposes  to  re- 
enslave  the  negroes  in  the  West  Indies,  and  would  do  the  same 
for  Ireland  if  he  could.  The  Continent  is  also  looking  gloomy. 
Austria  and  Prussia  are  apparently  ready  for  collision,  but  it 
won't  come  yet.  Bunsen  says  that  Prussia  will  at  the  very 
least  acquire  the  rest  of  Silesia  and  Bohemia  as  the  issue  of 
hostilities,  but  yet  will  defer  them  as  long  as  possible.  Austria 
again  talks  with  a  confidence  quite  inexplicable,  considering  her 
distracted  populations  and  her  paper  money.  As  to  the  latter, 

*  "William  Lord  Russell. 


440  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD  HOUGHTON. 

specie  has  totally  disappeared  ;  and  thus  there  is  nothing 
substantial  to  compare  the  paper  with.  This  paper  is  taken  for 
taxes,  and  is  issued  in  great  profusion ;  so  that  if  the  bullionists 
are  at  all  right,  there  must  be  a  crash  some  day  soon,  like  that  of 
the  assignats.  The  President  [Louis  Napoleon]  is  trying  a 
mild  personal  government.  The  Constitution,  by  making  him 
responsible,  gives  him  duties  to  perform,  and  these  he  has 
hitherto  respectably  performed.  He  is  less  terrified  by  Socialism 
than  other  French  public  men,  and  'thus  may  succeed  better 
against  it.  Rogers  has  been  here — very  cross  and  very  much 
petted.  He  stumps  about  most  wonderfully,  and  has  lately  had 
the  gratification  of  the  deaths  of  several  old  people  younger  than 
himself.  I  shall  take  an  interest  in  your  child  when  it  gets  into 
flower,  about  four  years  old,  hardly  before. 
With  kind  regards  to  your  wife, 

Yours  affectionately, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

Rogers'  placid  enjoyment  of  life,  and  of  his  supe- 
riority to  the  ordinary  infirmities  of  mankind,  was  not 
destined  to  last  very  long.  A  few  months  after  writ- 
ing the  foregoing  letter  Milnes,  addressing  the  same 
correspondent,  says  : — 

Poor  Rogers  has  broken  the  socket  of  his  thig-h.     Old  bones 

C7  O 

hardly  knit  together,  it  is  doubtful  whether  a  short  crippled  life 
is  worth  his  having.  He  is  quite  easy  in  his  mind,  and  not 
the  less  so  because  Luttrell  is  dying  too.  We  have  got  some 
pleasant  Americans  in  town ;  but,  generally,  society  is  dullish. 
Prescott  is  most  pleasing,  so  much  fresher  and  more  genial  than 
our  "  Gelehrte."  He  dined  with  Peel  the  other  day,  who  £ook 
him  for  Scribe,  who  was  to  dine  there  too,  and,  addressing  him  in 
frightful  French,  complimented  him  on  the  success  of  his  opera. 

The  spring  of  1850  saw  Milnes  once  more  in  Paris, 
anxious  to  see  for  himself  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
results  of  the  Eevolution.  The  President,  still  guiltless 


MARRIAGE.  441 

of  the  coup  d'etat,  showed  him  much  attention  ;  and 
even  went  so  far  as  to  write  to  him  confidentially  on 
the  subject  of  the  relations  of  the  two  countries.  But 
older  friends  of  Milnes  than  Prince  Napoleon  exercised 
their  influence  upon  him  ;  and  the  result  of  his  visit 
was  to  impress  him  strongly  with  the  unsatisfactory 
prospects  of  the  country  under  a  ruler  whose  ambition, 
though  carefully  concealed,  was  apparently  insatiable. 

His  friendship  with  M.  Guizot  had  been  increased 
rather  than  diminished  during  Guizot's  stay  in  England, 
in  spite  of  their  difference  of  opinion  with  regard  to  the 
general  drift  of  affairs  on  the  Continent,  and  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year  he  received  the  following  letter 
from  him  :— 


MY  DEAR  MR.  MILNES,  —  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  twice 
seeing  Mr.  Christie.  I  would  have  willingly  done  my  best  to 
make  his  stay  in  Paris  agreeable,  but  when  I  sent  to  his  lodgings 
to  tell  him  that  he  would  always  find  some  people  at  my  house 
on  Tuesday  evenings,  I  found  he  was  no  longer  staying  at  that 
place.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  had  left  Paris,  or  simply 
changed  his  lodgings.  You  have  been  so  kind  to  me  in  London 

o  o       o 

that  I  should  much  like  to  do  something  for  friends  of  yours 
when  they  come  to  Paris.  Won't  you  come  yourself  to  see 
a  little  during  the  Easter  holidays  ?  Although  we  may  do 
nothing,  we  are  sufficiently  curious  to  look  at.  The  Assembly 
and  the  President  mutually  paralyse  each  other.  The  President 
has  not  in  the  least  lost  his  wish  to  become  Emperor;  but  his 
ambition  is  all  at  once  arrested  before  a  couple  of  possibly  in- 
surmountable obstacles.  He  has  no  majority  which  will  accept 
him,  and  no  army  to  proclaim  him  in  spite  of  —  or  in  the  absence 
of  —  such  a  majority.  On  the  other  side,  the  Assembly  has  no 
other  President  to  exchange  for  the  present,  and  is  not  in  a 
condition  to  look  for  any  other  combination.  Everybody  is 


442  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

condemned  to  the  status  quo,  and  no  one  will  try  to  move  until 
the  last  extremity,  when  it  will  be  necessary  to  move  or  to 
perish.  Either  revolution  or  forced  inaction  is  the  actual  lot  of 
my  poor  country.  I  was  very  sad  when  I  watched  it  from 
abroad ;  I  am  still  sadder  now  that  I  am  here.  I  find  my 
friends  not  sufficiently  agitated,  and  too  much  discouraged. 
I  should  like  to  see  more  of  alarm  and  less  despondency. 
Austria  and  Prussia  are  calling  upon  France  to  unite  with  them 
in  order  to  suppress  in  Switzerland,  amicably  or  by  force,  the 
revolutionary  fire  which  German,  Italian,  and  French  refugees 
incessantly  feed.  To  concur,  to  leave  alone,  to  obstruct,  or  to 
concur  professedly  whilst  taking  steps  to  check  the  other 
Powers ;  between  these  four  courses  the  Government  here 
hesitates,  and  the  business  may  easily  become  very  grave.  I  am 
not  troubling  myself  at  all  about  your  forthcoming  Session  ;  you 
will  attend  to  your  own  affairs  very  wisely,  and  you  will  leave 
the  Continent  to  arrange  hers  as  it  will.  You  will  not  even 
trouble  yourself  to  ascertain  if  your  words  or  actions  aggravate 
or  not  in  other  States  the  existing  disturbance  and  anarchy. 
Adieu,  my  dear  sir.  I  have  given  orders  that  you  shall  receive 
my  work  on  the  "  History  of  the  Revolution  in  England,"  which 
is  about  to  appear  here  and  in  London.  You  will  find  me  very 
anti-revolutionary.  That  is  because  I  am  resolved  to  remain  a 
Liberal.  With  all  good  wishes  from  myself  and  my  family, 

Believe  me 

Yours  sincerely, 

GUIZOT. 
Kindly  remember  me,  I  beg  you,  to  your  father  and  your  sister. 


A.  de  Tocqueville  to  R.  M.  M. 

Paris,  April  13^,  1850. 

I  must  write  and  thank  you,  my  dear  Milnes,  for  the  kind 
letter  you  wrote  to  Madame  de  Tocqueville.  She  would  have 
liked  to  do  so  herself,  as  you  may  suppose,  but  is  prevented  by 
having  been  ill  in  be4  some  days.  Our  house,  my  dear  friend, 


MARRIAGE.  443 

has  been  an  abode  of  sadness  for  the  last  six  months.  When 
the  wife  recovers,  the  husband  is  taken  ill — and  so  on.  When 
shall  we  have  seen  the  last  of  these  worries  ?  I  really  cannot 
tell.  I  had  a  very  sharp  attack,  as  you  know.  I  am  quite  out  of 
danger,  but  still  very  weak ;  and  I  have  as  much  to  do  now  to 
shake  off  the  effects  of  the  cure  as  I  had  to  shake  off  the 
disease.  I  have  applied  for  a  six  months'  leave  to  build  up  my 
health  again,  which  these  two  years  of  agitation  and  unremitting 
application  to  work  have  quite  shattered.  I  badly  want  this 
rest,  and  shall  take  care  it  is  a  perfect  one.  We  are  living  in  a 
country,  and  in  times,  where  a  firm  spirit  is  about  as  indispens- 
able as  a  stout  heart.  I  would  like  to  give  back  to  mine  the 
strength  it  may  stand  in  need  of  at  any  moment.  No  one, 
however,  ever  retired  from  the  political  stage  with  more  satis- 
faction and  less  regret  than  I.  I  am  so  thoroughly  convinced 
than  any  and  every  attempt  at  action  would  be  useless,  or  worse 
than  useless,  that  I  look  on  my  present  absence  from  the  scene 
as  a  positive  blessing.  These  are  strange  times,  when  there 
seems  to  be  everything  present — but  greatness.  Now  is  not 
this  a  long  letter  for  a  convalescent  ?  Good-bye  ! 

Believe  in  our  sincere  friendship, 

A.    DE   TOCQUEVILLE. 

The  summer  of  1850  witnessed  the  tragical  death  of 
Sir  Eobert  Peel.  Milnes  notes  in  his  Commonplace 
Book  how,  on  the  night  before  the  day  on  which  Peel 
met  with  his  accident,  the  ex-Minister  was  in  very  low 
spirits,  and  how  his  depression  was  shared  by  his  wife, 
though  neither  could  account  for  the  feeling.  It  was 
at  her  urgent  request,  and  as  a  means  of  distracting  his 
mind,  that  on  the  following  morning  he  started  on  the 
fatal  ride  which  was  to  deprive  England  of  one  of  her 
greatest  statesmen,  and  the  House  of  Commons  of  its 
foremost  member. 


4M  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Mrs,  MacCarthy. 

Pall  Mall,  July  20^,  1850. 

DEAR  MRS.  MACCARTHY, — I  ought  to  have  before  answered 
your  amiable  letter,  but  the  little  nothings  of  occupied  life 
leave  a  man  no  time  for  his  duty.  Now  that  the  season  has 
closed  over  the  death  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the  Duke  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  I  am  staying  in  the  country,  I  have  plenty  of  leisure 
even  for  duller  work  than  this.  You  will  have  been  struck  with 
the  effect  produced  by  PeeFs  death.  He  seems  to  have  been  as 
much  of  a  popular  hero  as  our  cold  natures  are  capable  of  compre- 
hending. The  thick  sad  crowd  night  and  day  about  his  house ; 
the  weeping  women  rushing  out  of  dark  alleys  as  his  body  was 
taken  to  the  railroad ;  the  vote  of  sympathy  in  the  French 
Assembly — all  these  things  are  unlike  our  indifferent  time.  But 
the  real  triumph  was  the  complete  suppression  of  the  Protectionist 
murmurs,  and  the  substitution  of  "  the  man  who  had  loved  his 
country,  not  wisely,  but  too  well "  for  the  "  traitor  and  destroyer." 
Brougham  was  especially  angry,  and  attributed  all  the  gene  to 
the  nature  of  the  accident  (which  had  something  to  do  with  it), 
and  went  about  saying,  "  Let  every  statesman  take  care  and  ride 
like  a  sack,  and  he  may  die  like  a  demigod/'  It  is  the  general 
notion  that  Peel's  death  will  lead  to  the  dissolution  of  the 
Government.  I  don't  think  so.  The  increased  activity  and 
energy  given  to  the  Opposition  by  the  withdrawal  of  his. 
influence  may,  indeed,  tend  to  some  Liberal  modification ;  and  if 
parties  could  be  created  by  a  few  leading  men,  the  Government 
might  easily  be  outnumbered;  but  even  if  Gladstone  and 
D'Israeli  came  together,  it  does  not  follow  that  their  followers 
would.  The  present  provisional  condition  of  things  will  last 
for  some  time  yet,  and  is  much  better  for  the  country,  in  my 
opinion,  than  a  majority  powerful  enough  to  defy  public  opinion, 
as  in  France.  My  sister  has  been  most  of  the  summer  on  the 
Rhine,  and  I  propose  to  myself  to  spend  August  and  September 
at  some  German  baths — probably  Marienbad.  The  rush  of 
English  to  those  parts  is  so  great  that  there  is  hardly  a  bed  to 
be  had,  and  it  is  expected  that  the  Continent  generally  this  year 


MARRIAGE.  445 

will  have  its  full  quota  of  our  countrymen.  One  of  the  prettiest 
London  diversions  has  been  a  moving  panorama  of  the  overland 
route  to  India.  One  of  the  pictures  was  in  Ceylon,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  vegetation  and  the  colouring  quite  realise  the 
description  of  one  of  your  early  letters.  The  literary  season  has 
been  remarkaby  stagnant.  An  Anglo-German  novel,  "  The 
Initials/'  two  new  volumes  of  Grote's  History,  and  Tennyson's 
"  In  Memoriam "  are  the  only  books  that  suggest  themselves 
to  me.  Wordsworth's  new  poem  will  be  out  next  week — a 
goodly  octavo  of  blank  verse  — which  we  shall  all  reverentially 
read,  whether  we  like  it  or  no.  Henry  Taylor's  comedy  The 
Virgin  Martyr  is  elegant  and  dull,  and  has  hardly  survived  its 
birth,  like  the  child  of  the  Queen  of  Spain.  There  are  scores  of 
marriages.  I  shall  be  left  the  only  bachelor  in  town.  Lord 
Euston  to  the  beautiful  Miss  Pattle  (Thackeray's  idol),  and 
Robert  Curzon  to  Miss  Hunter,  born  in  Ceylon.  Wiseman  pro- 
ceeds to  Rome  to  get  his  hat.  These  are  "  shocking  bad  "  times 
for  me,  but  a  liberal-minded  English  Catholic  would  be  a  great 
game  to  play  in  Rome,  if  he  had  will  and  wit  enough. 

Yours  and  Charles's, 

R.  M.  M. 

The  closing  references  in  the  foregoing  letter  are,  of 
course,  to  the  great  storm  of  popular  feeling  which  was 
about  to  sweep  over  the  country  in  consequence  of  the 
so-called  Papal  aggression.  Milnes,  with  that  warm 
sympathy  which,  from  the  time  of  his  first  residence  in 
Rome,  he  had  always  felt  with  Cardinal  Wiseman  and 
MacCarthy  (Wiseman's  cousin),  naturally  found  his 
position  during  the  short  but  terrible  outburst  of  ultra- 
Protestant  feeling  which  stirred  the  country  to  its 
depths  during  the  autumn  of  1850  anything  but  a 
pleasant  one.  A  tolerant  liberal-minded  man,  who  was 


446  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

apt  to  look  at  religion  from  many  different  points  of  view, 
he  could,  under  no  circumstances,  have  entered  into  the 
vehement  passions  of  the  time  ;  and  it  is  certain  that,  so 
far  as  the  sectarian  prejudices  which  were  at  the  root  of 
the  agitation  were  concerned,  he  regarded  them  with 
something  like  contempt.  But  he  had  the  strong  his- 
torical imagination  of  the  poet,  and  from  the  national 
point  of  view  he  could  easily  comprehend  the  intense 
hostility  of  English  feeling  to  the  notion  of  an  England 
parcelled  out  into  districts,  against  the  will  of  her  people, 
by  the  head  of  a  Church  which  England  had  cast  off 
and  defied.  So,  mingled  with  his  strong  dislike  for  the 
furious  Protestantism  of  the  populace,  and  his  warm 
personal  friendship  for  the  eminent  Catholic  dignitary 
wTho  was  for  the  moment  the  object  of  the  nation's  exe- 
cration, there  was  a  certain  measure  of  sympathy  with 
the  anti-Papal  movement  as  a  national  demonstration 
of  opinion.  It  was  quite  characteristic  of  the  man  thus 
to  be  divided  by  conflicting  tendencies  and  sympathies. 
If  he  had  been  able  to  see  only  one  side  of  this  or  any 
other  question,  and  to  act  only  with  one  party  (whether 
that  party  were  right  or  wrong),  his  public  career 
must  have  been  something  very  different  from  what  it 
was,  and,  to  the  eyes  of  the  superficial,  infinitely  more 
successful.  He  gave  his  vote  in  favour  of  the  Ecclesi- 
astical Titles  Bill,  but  hardly  concealed  his  dislike  for 
the  measure. 

The  summer  and  autumn  of  1850  found  Milnes 
engaged  not  only  in  writing  for  the  Edinburgh  and 
other  reviews,  but  in  taking  an  active  part  in  the 


MARRIAGE.  447 

management  of  the  Royal  Literary  Fund,  and  in  the  pro- 
motion of  education  in  Yorkshire,  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  the  Yorkshire  Union  of  Mechanics'  Institutes. 

A  great  change  was  now  approaching  in  his 
life.  For  some  years  he  had  been  contemplating 
marriage,  feeling  keenly  the  need  of  a  companionship 
more  constant,  and  a  sympathy  more  tender,  than  that 
which  was  to  be  found  even  in  the  wide  circle  of  his 
friendships.  The  lady  upon  whom  his  mind  had  for 
some  time  been  fixed  was  the  Honourable  Annabel 
Crewe,  younger  daughter  of  the  second  Lord  Crewe. 
To  Miss  Crewe's  character,  and  to  the  qualities  which 
distinguished  her  so  pre-eminently,  it  is  impossible  to 
do  justice  by  any  description,  but  in  the  course  of  this 
narrative  the  reader  will  see  how  happily  the  marriage 
resulted,  and  how  fortunate  Milnes  was  in  winning  for 
himself  a  wife  so  fully  fitted  to  assist  him  in  his  battle 
with  the  world,  and  to  cheer  him  in  those  moments 
of  despondency  which,  even  in  his  bright  career,  were 
so  frequent. 

One  of  the  friends  to  whom  he  communicated  the 
news  of  his  enslavement  to  Miss  Crewe  was  his  old 

o     o 

tutor  Connop  Thirlvvall,  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  the  man 
who,  perhaps  more  than  any  other,  had  influenced  his 
mind  in  his  early  life.  The  Bishop  acknowledged  the 
news  in  the  following  letter  : — 

The  Bishop  of  St.  David's  to  R.  M.  M. 

Abergwili,  Carmarthen,  June  Zftth,  1851. 
MY  DEAR  MILNES, — I  take  it  very  kind  indeed  of  you  to 
send  me  the  good  news  before  a  whisper  of  it  had  reached  me 


448  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   EOUGHTON. 

from  any  other  quarter.  Among-  all  the  communications  of  such 
a  kind  that  I  have  received  from  my  friends,  I  can  safely  say 
that  none  ever  afforded  me  greater  pleasure.  I  have  really  been 
uneasy  of  late  years,  lest  in  the  boundless  variety  and  manifold 
interest  of  your  social,  literary,  and  political  occupations  and 
enjoyments,  you  should  lose  sight  of  the  main  chance,  and  stiffen 
unawares  into  an  old  bachelor.  I  rejoice  from  the  deep  of  my 
heart  that  you  have  escaped  this  danger.  Yet  my  congratula- 
tions would  hardly  seem  sincere — or,  at  least,  would  be  worth 
little — if  they  were  not  accompanied  with  the  acknowledgment 
of  a  little  selfish  regret.  I  cannot  think  without  some  sadness 
of  the  state  of  existence  out  of  which  you  are  about  to  pass,  and 
which  will  soon  belong  altogether  to  the  pleasures  of  memory. 
It  has  been  so  rich,  so  peculiar,  so  delightful  at  least  to  your 
friends.  Henceforth,  to  me,  your  number  26  will  have  some- 
thing funereal  about  it.  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  never  enjoy  a 
breakfast  again  in  that  room,  not  if  I  were  invited  to  meet  half 
a  dozen  trans- Atlantic  Bishops.  It  is  very  likely — nay,  certain—- 
that you  will  still  collect  agreeable  people  about  your  wife's 
breakfast-table  ;  but  can  I  ever  sit  down  there  without  the 
certainty  that  I  shall  meet  with  none  but  respectable  persons  ? 
It  may  be  an  odd  thing  for  a  bishop  to  lament,  but  I  cannot 
help  it ;  and  it  is  more  than  friendship,  it  is  fortitude  in  me  to 
rejoice,  as  I  nevertheless  do,  at  the  prospect  of  your  approaching 
happiness.  My  best  consolation  is  the  hope,  too  bold  to  be 
strong,  that  you  will  in  some  hitherto  untried  way  be  no  less 
eminent  in  your  character  of  a  married  man  than  you  have  been 
as  a  single  one. 

My  best  wishes  will  attend  you. 

Yours  ever, 

C.  ST.  DAVID'S. 

Milnes's  intimacy  with  Lord  and  Lady  Palmerston 
had  been  growing  for  some  time,  and  he  had  become  a 
frequent  visitor  at  Broadlands.  Lady  Palmerston,  on 
hearing  of  his  engagement,  wrote  as  follows : — 


MARRIAGE.  449 

Lady  Palmerston  to  R.  M.  M. 

Sunday  night. 

DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — I  am  quite  delighted  to  hear  of 
your  marriage,  and  Lord  P.  desires  to  unite  his  congratulations 
with  mine  on  the  occasion.  We  are  both  very  fond  of  you,  and 
therefore  very  glad  to  hear  of  an  event  that  promises  so  much 
happiness.  I  always  thought  Miss  Crewe  a  particularly  nice 
girl,  with  such  pleasant  and  agreeable  gentle  manners,  and  I 
have  often  inquired  about  her  since  Mrs.  Cunliffe's  death  [Miss 
Crewe's  aunt],  thinking  how  desolate  she  must  feel;  so  that  I  am 
very  glad  of  the  marriage,  for  her  sake  as  well  as  yours.  Thank 
you  very  much  for  the  notification,  and  I  can  assure  you  that 
you  have  our  best  wishes.  The  report  had  been  mentioned  to  me 
before,  but  I  treated  it  as  a  romance,  never  having  seen  you 
speak  to  her,  or  even  having  heard  you  mention  her  name ;  but  I 
suppose  this  was  prudence,  and  a  determination  to  keep  your  own 
counsel,  and  I  think  you  are  right.  .  .  .  So  I  wish  you  joy 
most  sincerely  of  your  prospects. 

Believe  me,  dear  Mr.  Milnes, 

Sincerely  yours, 

E.  PALMERSTON. 

Another  old  friend — Eliot  Warburton — writing  to 
him  a  little  later,  says  : — 

How  do  you   feel   after  your   London   career?     Do  your 
Yesterdays  look  backward  with  a  smile, 
Nor  wound  you  like  the  Parthians  as  they  fly  ? 
They  ought  if  triumphs  bright  that  give  no   others    pain,   if 
thoughtful  kindness,  unostentatious  and  unconscious  self-sacrifice, 
memory  enriched  and  mind  exercised,  avail. 

Milnes  himself  was  looking  to  the  future  rather 
than  to  the  past,  and  was  busily  engaged  at  this  time  in 
dismantling  the  rooms  at  No.  26,  Pall  Mall,  which  had 
been  for  so  many  years  his  home  in  London,  and  the 
scene  of  his  hospitalities.  The  house,  I  may  mention, 


450  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTOtf. 

still  stands,  little  changed  from  the  days  when  Milnes 
dwelt  there  as  a  bachelor ;  the  very  name  of  the  tailor 
who  occupies  the  lower  part  of  the  building  being  the 
same  as  it  was  in  his  time. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartJiy. 

July  18a,  1851. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — Though  in  all  the  bustle  of  a  demenagement 
after  ten  years'  accumulation  of  domestic  stuffs,  I  must  give  you 
a  line.  We  are  to  be  married  at  Madeley,*  on  the  30th.  Lord 
Crewe  gives  the  breakfast  at  Crewe,  and  thence  we  proceed  first 
to  Devonshire,  and  then  to  Vienna ;  where,  by  some  odd  com- 
bination, neither  I  nor  Annabel  have  ever  been.  We  shall  not 
be  rich.  But  she  is  a  person  of  simple  tastes,  and  will,  I  trust, 
accommodate  herself  to  a  less  luxurious  life  than  she  has  been 
accustomed  to. 

A  Florentine  you  know  well,  of  the  name  of  V ,  came 

over  for  the  Exhibition,f  and  was  very  curious  and  ejaculatory 
about  you.  The  number  of  foreigners  is  nothing  like  what  we 
expected,  and  only  tells  in  the  town  by  making  the  streets 
uncrossable,  and  the  cabs  rare. 

The  marriage  took  place  on  July  30th  at  Madeley 

Church. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Athenaeum  Club,  Aug.  \ftth,  1851. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND, — I  must  just  give  you  a  line  in  the  full 
hurry  of  leaving  London  for  a  three  months'  tour  in  Germany. 
After  the  marriage,  which  was  conducted  with  some  rustic 
solemnity,  we  went  to  Torquay,  where  we  passed  a  charming 
fortnight.  Annabel  is  even  more  of  a  companion  than  I  had  ever 
anticipated,  and  so  wise  and  reasonable  that,  even  in  the  most 
calm  and  prudential  point  of  view,  I  must  look  on  myself  as  a 
very  fortunate  man. 

*  Lord  Crewe's  house  in  Staffordshire,  where  Miss  Crewe's  girlhood 
was  passed. 

f  This  was  the  year  of  the  first  great  Exhibition. 


MARRIAGE.  451 

Gladstone's  letters  to  Lord  Aberdeen  on  the  condition  of 
Naples  have  quite  made  an  event  here.  They  are  so  confirma- 
tory of  Palmerston's  policy  that  he  has  sent  copies  to  all  the 
Legations  with  orders  that  they  should  be  formally  presented  to 
the  different  Governments.  I  anticipate  that  we  shall  be  on  the 
Continent  for  about  three  months,  and  then  return  to  my  father 
in  England,  whose  health  is  much  better  than  it  used  to  be. 
Hawes  gave  me  the  prettiest  cadeau  de  noces  in  his  name  and 
yours.  I  have  left  Pall  Mall  for  good  ;  and  hope,  in  the  spring, 
to  be  settled  in  16,  Upper  Brook  Street.  Keep  well — better  if 
possible,  and  believe  me,  with  my  wife's  true  regards, 

Ever  yours, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

According  to  arrangement  Milnes  went  to  Vienna 
with  his  wife,  and  was  there  introduced  into  the  bright 
and  gay  society  of  a  city  for  which  he  ever  afterwards 
entertained  a  warm  affection.  One  curious  incident 
marked  his  tour ;  he  proposed  to  extend  his  trip  into 
Hungary,  but,  to  his  surprise,  was  stopped  upon  the 
frontier.  The  Austrian  Government  refused  to  allow 
the  author  of  the  dangerous  pamphlet  on  the  events  of 
1848  to  enter  the  Hungarian  kingdom. 

Whilst  sailing  on  a  steamboat  on  the  Danube  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Milnes  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Thomp- 
son, a  young  Oxonian  in  orders,  who  happened  to  be 
travelling  in  the  same  direction.  They  were  mutually 
attracted,  and  he  was  their  companion  for  several  days. 
When  they  returned  to  England,  the  acquaintance  thus 
begun  was  kept  up.  By-and-by  it  ripened  into  a 
genuine  friendship,  which  remained  unchanged  through- 
out their  lives.  The  friend  whom  they  thus  gained 


452  THE    LIFE   OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

when  on  their  wedding  journey  was  at  that  time  a 
Fellow  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford ;  he  is  now  the 
Archbishop  of  York. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  he  and  his  wife 
returned  to  England,  where  the  sensation  produced  by 
Mr.  Gladstone's  Naples  Letters  had  not  yet  subsided. 
A  request  from  Mr.  Gladstone  that  Milnes  should  revise 
his  translation  of  Farini's  "  History  of  the  Eoman 
State  "  gave  him  real  pleasure. 

It  should  be  said  that  Milnes's  knowledge  of  the 
Italian  language  and  literature  was  of  no  common  order. 
French  and  German  he  knew  "well,"  as  the  saying  is; 
but  Italian  he  knew,  not  as  a  foreign  language,  but 
almost  as  his  mother  tongue.  It  was  a  second-native 
speech,  and  he  delighted  to  make  use  of  it  both  in 
speaking  and  in  writing. 

R.  M.  M.  to   W.  E.   Gladstone. 

Bawtry,  Dec.  Uh,  1851. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE, — I  am  flattered  and  obliged  by  your 
offer.  The  alternative  you  propose  seems  to  me  to  depend  on 
the  question  whether  you  are  to  publish  the  third  volume 
separately  and  immediately,  or  wait  for  a  new  edition  of  the 
other  two.  In  the  former  case  you  had  better  send  me  the  sheets 
of  the  third  volume  at  once,  and  I  will  look  over  them  carefully. 
.  You  may  have  heard  that  I  was  refused  entrance  into 
Hungary ;  a  foolish  proceeding  if  meant  as  an  annoyance,  and 
more  so  if  intended  as  a  precaution.  I  believe,  notwithstanding 
all  the  fury,  that  your  revelations  have  been  of  great  use  at  Naples 
and  elsewhere  ;  not,  perhaps,  so  much  to  the  unhappy  victims 
themselves,  as  on  the  ferocities  which  in  some  degree  belong  to 
the  manners  of  such  countries.  I  was,  indeed,  much  shocked  in 
Germany  at  the  general  prevalence  of  the  spirit  of  revenge  on 


MARRIAGE.  453 

the  part  of  the  "  party  of  order,"  which  wants  to  neutralise  all 
that  might  else  have  seemed  to  benefit  society  and  restore 
confidence.  Fancy  the  Austrians  re-naming  the  chief  square  in 
Presbourg  after  Haynau  !  A  folly  of  this  kind  would  neutralise 
the  wisest  re-organisation ;  the  people  and  their  advocates  are 
indeed  so  beaten  down  that  an  intelligent  and  benevolent 
despotism  would  have  it  all  its  own  way ;  but  (I  would  say 
parenthetically)  despots  are  not  reasonable  and  just,  and  thus 
even  they  will  not  succeed.  As  there  is  a  new  revolution  in 
France,  I  have  only  seen  the  under  sea  views,  so  cannot  talk  about 
it.  The  President  has  both  courage  and  generous  feelings,  and,  as 
men  go  there,  has  my  vote.  My  wife  begs  her  remembrances  to 
yours.  We  shall  not  be  fixed  in  town  till  the  middle  of  March. 
You  see  this  sage  attempt  of  Ashley's  to  make  Maynooth  the 
heart  of  the  new  Roman  University. 


The  same  to  the  same. 
Fryston  Lodge,  Torquay,  Dee.  22nd,  1851. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE, — I  sent  you  from  Woburn  the  sheets 
of  Farini,  and  rather  expected  to  find  some  more  here.  The 
book  promises  to  be  extremely  interesting.  My  address  for 
the  next  week  or  so  is  Broadlands,  Romsey,  Hants,  and  then 
Fryston.  Would  there  be  any  chance  of  catching  you  at  the 
latter  place  on  your  way  south  ?  I  fear  the  political  prospects 
of  the  world  are  darkening.  From  what  I  know  of  Louis 
Napoleon  I  am  inclined  to  think  his  intentions  good,  and  his 
ambition  of  a  much  higher  order  than  his  uncle's.  But  on  the 
one,  as  on  the  other,  rests  the  stain  of  unscrupulousness  as  to 
means,  which  vitiates  all  his  ends;  and  indeed,  poor  fellow!  I 
fear  he  has  nothing  but  the  worst  class  of  men  about  him,  who 
will  be  of  little  service  in  good  enterprises  and  active  instruments 
in  bad.  They  were  very  full  at  Woburn  of  the  supposed  tergi- 
versations of  D'Israeli,  who,  it  seems,  had  talked  very  freely 
against  Protection  and  Protectionists  at  Colonel  Cavendish's. 


454  THE   LIFE    Of  LOUD   HOUGHTON. 

I  think  the  party  always  make  a  kick  at  their  leader  about  this 
time  of  year,  but  go  quietly  enough  in  the  team  after  February. 
The  climate  here  is  as  bland  as  the  Bishop,*  and,  occasionally,  as 
stormy.  Yours  very  truly, 

R.    M.    MlLNES. 

Frequently  as  Fryston  has  been  mentioned  in  the 
course  of  this  biography,  no  description  of  the  house  as 
it  was  during  Lord  Houghton's  life  has  yet  been  given. 
I  have  thought  it  better,  indeed,  to  reserve  for  the 
period  when  it  became  to  a  larger  extent  than  it  had 
been  before  his  stated  abode,  any  detailed  account  of  a 
home  which  became  famous  alike  in  the  social  and  the 
literary  annals  of  England  during  the  thirty  years 
that  followed  his  marriage.  I  have  already  quoted 
Thackeray's  remark  to  Milnes,  that  "  Fryston  combined 
the  graces  of  the  chateau  and  the  tavern."  Like  most 
sayings  of  the  kind,  this  was  an  exaggeration,  but,  as 
many  still  living  can  testify,  an  exaggeration  founded 
upon  fact.  The  house  as  it  now  stands  has  been  some- 
what modified  since  the  days  when  Milnes  first  brought 
his  bride  to  his  Yorkshire  home.  The  lamentable  fire 
of  1876,  which  gutted  the  front  portion  of  the  building, 
and  caused  irreparable  damage  to  Lord  Houghton's 
library,  led  to  a  reconstruction  of  some  of  the  more 
important  rooms  in  the  building,  and  consequently  the 
Fryston  of  to-day  is  not  quite  the  Fryston  which  was 
known  so  well  to  the  men  and  women  of  distinction  in 
the  past  generation.  The  changes  which  were  made 
when  the  house  was  rebuilt  were  all  in  the  nature  of 
*  Philpotts,  Bishop  of  Exeter. 


MARRIAGE.  455 

improvements,  but,  happily,  they  did  not  in  any  way 
affect  the  recollection  of  those  who  were  familiar  with 
Fryston  in  its  former  state.  One  can  still  identify  the 
corner  in  the  drawing-room  where  in  the  old  days 
Carlyle  sat  by  the  fire,  and  poured  forth  his  passionate 
monologues  upon  the  men  and  affairs  of  his  time ;  and 
the  bedroom  which  Thackeray  used,  and  in  which  hung 
a  quaint  old  print  of  Tunbridge  Wells  that  may  well 
have  furnished  the  novelist  with  more  than  one  scene 
for  his  tale  of  "  The  Virginians,"  is  still  what  it  used 
to  be,  with,  the  single  exception  that  the  paint  which 
ignorant  hands  had  laid  upon  the  oak  panelling  of  the 
walls  has  been  happily  removed. 

A  house  more  delightful  than  this  [says  a  writer  in  the 
World]  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  Situated  on  the  frontiers  of 
the  great  West  Riding  industries,  it  stands  in  the  centre  of 
gardens  and  shrubberies,  with  prairies  of  park  and  miles  of  larch 
and  beechen  woods.  Fryston  Hall  was  originally  a  handsome 
square  mansion,  belonging  to  Mr.  Charles  Crowle,  whose  portrait 
is  to  be  seen  in  one  of  the  two  grand  pictures  by  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  in  the  possession  of  the  Dilettante  Society,  and  whom 
Horace  Walpole  frequently  visited  there  on  his  way  to  his 
neighbour  Sir  John  Bland,  of  Kippax  Park,  the  fashionable 
gambler  who  shot  himself  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century. 
This  house  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Milnes,  of  Wakefield,  M.P. 
for  York,  who  added  the  handsome  Italian  front,  with  Ionic 
pilasters  and  pediment,  and  a  large  corps  de  logis  behind,  and 
took  up  his  residence  here  about  1790. 

The  first  feature  which  strikes  the  visitor  to  Fryston 
is  the  manner  in  which  books  appear  to  pervade  the 
whole  house.  Alike  in  the  old  days  and  now,  the  very 
hall  at  Fryston  has  been  converted  into  a  library,  and 


456  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

he  who  enters  it  passes  between  long  rows  of  books 
gathered  together  during  the  many  }rears  of  his  active 
life  by  Monckton  Milnes.  It  was  the  present  Lord 
Sherbrooke  who,  after  one  of  his  visits  to  Fryston,  was 
wicked  enough  to  liken  it  to  one  of  those  amorphous 
animals  which  have  their  brains  all  over  their  bodies, 
for  wherever  you  go  in  this  pleasant  home  of  a  man  of 
letters  books  pursue  you.  They  are  found,  not  merely 
in  the  library  proper,  but  in  almost  every  room  in  the 
house.  They  greet  you  on  the  staircases,  they  smile 
upon  you  in  corridors,  and  odd  nooks  and  corners  in 
every  portion  of  the  large  and  somewhat  rambling 
building.  No  one,  indeed,  can  find  himself  in  Fryston 
without  feeling  that  he  is  in  the  home  of  a  man  of 
letters.  Of  the  library  itself  there  is  one  characteristic 
which  immediately  strikes  the  observer  ;  that  is,  its  uni- 
versality. Here  is  a  bookcase  devoted  to  the  writings  of 
the  Fathers,  there  one  in  which  the  latest  phases  of 
spiritual  research  and  religious  eccentricity — spiritualism, 
Morrnonism,  and  theosophy — are  fully  represented  by 
their  literature.  A  goodly  array  of  French  novels  in 
one  corner ;  a  stately  regiment  of  genealogical  histories 
in  another ;  rare  German  treatises  elbowing  still  rarer 
Italian  classics ;  a  wonderful  collection  of  criminal  trials 
(ancient  and  modern),  flanked  by  a  series  of  volumes  in 
which  the  study  of  gastronomy  in  all  its  branches  is 
fully  represented.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  subjects 
which  are  illustrated  in  this  unique  library.  Perhaps 
the  most  interesting  of  the  many  departments  into  which 
it  is  divided  are  those  devoted  to  books  presented  to 


MARRIAGE.  457 

Milnes  by  their  authors,  or  to  volumes  which  may  be 
said  to  have  been  made  by  him.  Of  presentation 
volumes  there  is  literally  no  end  at  Fryston;  indeed, 
pages  could  be  filled  with  a  simple  list  of  the  books  of 
various  kinds  which  have  been  dedicated  to  him  by 
their  writers.  It  was  his  habit  to  insert  in  all  these 
presentation  volumes  the  letters  which  had  accom- 
panied the  gifts,  so  that  a  rambling  survey  of  this 
portion  of  the  bookshelves  at  Fryston  is  attended  by 
many  a  delightful  discovery,  many  an  unexpected  peep 
into  the  secret  mind  of  the  author  who  has  brought 
his  little  tribute  of  friendship  or  admiration  to  the 
poet-peer. 

As  for  the  books  which  Milnes  may  be  said  to  have 
made,  though  he  had  no  share  in  writing  them,  they 
consist  of  volumes  of  pamphlets,  newspaper  extracts, 
letters,  speeches,  short  poems — all  classified  with  the 
greatest  care,  some  of  them  containing  publications  of 
extreme  rarity,  and  in  nearly  every  case  accompanied  by 
manuscript  letters  which  immensely  enhance  their  value. 
Quaint  curiosities,  too,  may  be  met  with  of  no  ordinary 
interest  in  turning  over  the  leaves  of  the  Fryston 
library.  A  bit  of  the  skin  of  a  famous  murderer  lingers 
between  the  pages  of  a  volume  devoted  to  criminal 
trials,  whilst  in  another  and  more  honoured  position  a 
lock  of  Keats's  hair  is  carefully  preserved. 

In  the  cabinets  in  the  library  proper  are  many 
volumes  the  contents  of  which  would  make  the  eye  of 
the  autograph  hunter  glisten  with  admiration  and  envy. 
Here  are  not  a  few  autograph  letters  of  Cromwell, 


458  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

including  one  to  his  son  in  Ireland,  so  full  of  good  sense 
and  true  religion  that  again  and  again  on  a  wet  Sunday 
the  master  of  the  house  would  propose  to  some  favoured 
guest  that  he  should  remain  with  him  at  home  and  hear 
a  sermon  from  the  great  Protector  instead  of  one  from 
the  Vicar  of  Fryston.  Many  of  Strafford's  letters  to  his 
third  wife  are  also  here,  having  been  inherited  along 
with  other  interesting  relics  with  the  Great  Houghton 
estate.  It  would  be  out  of  place  in  these  pages  to 
attempt  to  give  a  catalogue  of  the  many  interesting 
objects  connected  with  English  literature  and  English 
history  which  are  gathered  together  at  Fryston,  yet  the 
reader  ought  to  know  something  of  the  household  gods 
of  the  man  of  whose  life  I  am  writing ;  and  I  have 
therefore  ventured  faintly  to  indicate  the  existence  of 
treasures  which  not  only  added  greatly  to  the  interest 
and  pleasure  of  a  visit  to  Fryston,  but  bore  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  tastes  and  sympathies  of  the  owner 
of  the  house. 

Something  must  be  said  of  the  pictures  which  cover 
the  walls  of  the  principal  apartments  and  the  long 
corridor.  These  are  for  the  most  part  family  portraits, 
which  offer  their  own  testimony,  not  only  to  the 
antiquity  of  the  race  from  which  Milnes  sprang,  but 
to  the  good  looks  which  characterised  men  and  women 
alike.  Among  the  earliest  of  these  portraits  is  one 
of  Sir  Godfrey  Rodes,  of  Great  Houghton,  the 
direct  ancestor  of  Lord  Houghton,  whose  daughter 
Elizabeth  was  the  third  wife  of  Lord  Strafford.  A 
portrait  of  the  Countess  of  Strafford,  and  another  of 


MARRIAGE.  459 

Lady  Margaret  Wentworth,  are  among  the  treasures  of 
the  collection ;  whilst  two  admirable  Romneys  occupy 
a  place  of  honour  in  the  drawing-room,  and  furnish 
full-length  presentments  of  Sir  Robert  Shore  Mimes 
and  Lady  Milnes.  Portraits  of  the  immediate  ancestors 
of  Milnes  abound,  including  works  by  Reynolds,  Grains- 
borough,  Romney,  and  Lawrence,  though  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  collection  contains  no  satisfactory 
likeness  of  his  distinguished  father ;  whilst  his  uncle, 
the  eccentric  Rodes  Milnes,  is  only  represented  by  a 
couple  of  caricatures,  which  testify  alike  to  his  obesity 
and  to  his  popularity  in  London  society  during  the 
Regency.  Many  portraits  of  the  Crewe  family,  including 
one  of  the  famous  Lady  Crewe,  are  also  gathered  to- 
gether at  Fryston;  but  next  in  interest  to  the  portraits 
of  Milnes's  immediate  ancestors  must  be  placed  the  fine 
set  of  drawings,  by  Richmond,  in  which  the  liknesses 
of  the  intimate  friends  of  his  youth  and  early  manhood 
are  preserved.  Milnes  loved  to  be  surrounded  by  his 
friends ;  when  he  was  unable  to  enjoy  their  bodily 
presence,  he  liked  to  have  their  faces  regarding  him  with 
friendly  eyes  from  the  walls  of  his  favourite  sitting- 
room.  So  that,  as  one  wanders  through  the  rooms 
at  Fryston,  a  portrait  gallery,  not  only  of  the  Milnes's 
and  Rodes's  of  a  bygone  age,  but  of  the  men  who 
filled  the  greatest  part  in  Lord  Houghton's  life,  is 
unfolded  before  the  eye. 

What  the  social  life  of  Fryston  was  has  been  told  so 
often  by  those  who  have  enjoyed  the  owner's  hospitality 
that  it  might  seem  superfluous  to  dwell  upon  the  subject 


460  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

here.  Nothing,  however,  can  lie  apart  from  my  nar- 
rative which  helps  to  present  more  vividly  to  the 
reader's  mind  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  and  the 
manner  of  his  life.  He  himself  had  no  great  love  for 
Fryston ;  it  was  a  house  which  in  his  early  youth  had 
been  associated  with  family  vicissitudes  of  a  painful 
kind.  When  still  a  young  man,  he  and  his  father  had 
jointly  come  to  the  resolve  to  part  with  the  estate,  and 
it  was  almost  by  an  accident  that  it  remained  in  their 
possession.  There  were,  therefore,  no  tender  ties  of 
childhood  which  bound  him  to  Fryston,  but,  even  if  there 
had  been,  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  would  ever  have 
cared  greatly  for  the  place.  In  England  there  was  only 
one  spot  in  which  he  really  cared  to  dwell.  The  streets 
of  London,  with  their  ever-changing,  never-ending 
current  of  life,  with  their  full  representation  of 
humanity  in  all  its  aspects,  were  dearer  to  him  far 
than  the  fairest  rural  scene  could  ever  have  been. 
For  Italy  and  the  East  he  had  an  abiding  passion, 
and  he  might  have  been  content  to  live  the  life  of 
a  hermit  under  the  shadow  of  Philse,  or  by  the 
shores  of  the  Bosphorus ;  but  for  the  prosaic  English 
home  in  a  northern  county  he  had  no  natural  taste,  and 
fond  as  he  was  of  visiting  at  country  houses,  and 
meeting  his  friends  in  the  intimacy  of  their  home- 
life,  he  had  few,  if  any,  of  the  tastes  which  are 
associated  with  the  country  gentleman.  Yet,  though 
it  is  right  to  record  this  fact,  it  is  to  Milnes's  credit 
that  from  the  time  of  his  marriage  he  not  only  devoted 
himself  to  domestic  life,  but  ruled  his  home  in  such 


MAERIAGE.  461 

a  fashion  that  those  who  visited  it — and  visitors  poured 
into  Fryston  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe — learned 
to  regard  it  as  the  model  of  what  such  a  home  should 
be.  Never,  indeed,  was  there  a  more  delightful  host 
than  Milnes.  Whether  his  guests  were  famous  or 
obscure,  whether  they  belonged  to  the  great  world  or 
had  merely  for  the  moment  emerged  from  the  masses, 
they  could  not  be  long  in  his  company  without  feeling 
the  charm  of  his  manner,  and  being  warmed  and 
attracted  by  the  tenderness  of  his  heart.  His  fame  as  a 
talker  was  world- wide,  and  there  is  no  need  to  say  that 
the  dinner-table  at  Fryston  was  the  scene  of  a  hundred 
happy  encounters  of  wit,  intelligence,  and  knowledge. 
But  to  hear  Milnes  at  his  best,  it  was  necessary  to 
meet  him  at  the  breakfast-table.  Although  he  spoke  so 
often  of  his  own  indolence,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  undeniably  averse  to  physical  exertion,  he  was 
always  a  very  early  riser ;  and  when  Fryston  was  filled 
with  guests,  he  was  generally  astir  hours  before  any  of 
them  had  appeared  on  the  scene.  Perhaps  it  was  due 
in  some  measure  to  this  fact  that  when  the  house-party 
met  at  breakfast,  no  matter  how  distinguished  for 
intellectual  superiority  might  be  some  of  those  com- 
posing it,  Milnes  invariably  showed  a  brightness  and 
activity  of  mind  which  no  one  else  could  match.  It  is 
with  a  great  sadness  indeed  that  those  who  often  had 
the  privilege  of  meeting  him  in  this  fashion  in  his  own 
house  must  recall  those  breakfasts,  absolutely  informal 
and  unpretending,  but  made  memorable  by  the  choice 
treasures  of  wit,  of  paradox,  of  playful  sarcasm,  and  of 


462  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTOtf. 

an  apparently  inexhaustible  store  of  reminiscences, 
which  Milnes  offered  to  his  guests.  Not  in  vain  had 
he  entered  public  life  at  the  time  when  the  breakfast- 
table  was  still  the  great  occasion  and  opportunity  for 
bright  conversation  ;  he  himself  was  almost  the  last  of 
the  race  of  breakfast-givers.  During  his  closing  years 
indeed,  like  his  contemporary  Mr.  Gladstone,  he  had 
been  compelled  to  abandon  a  custom  which  was  no 
longer  in  harmony  with  the  habits  of  London  life, 
but,  happily,  when  he  ceased  to  be  the  giver  of  formal 
breakfast-parties,  he  did  not  cease  to  be  the  best  break- 
fast-table talker  of  his  time ;  and  those  who  met  him 
under  his  own  roof,  or  in  the  country  houses  where  he 
was  a  welcome  guest,  will  bear  witness  that  in  this 
description  I  have  not  been  guilty  of  exaggeration.  At 
Fryston  his  efforts  to  entertain  and  amuse  his  guests 
were  seconded  by  his  wife  with  a  grace  and  a  gentleness 
to  which  I  cannot  pretend  to  do  justice.  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  he  found  in  her  as  efficient  a  help-meet  in 
this  dispensation  of  an  almost  superabundant  hospitality 
as  any  man  could  have  hoped  to  have. 

Before  me  as  I  write  lies  the  Visitors'  Book  of 
Fryston  between  the  years  1859  and  1872,  and,  though 
I  am  anticipating  the  course  of  my  narrative  by  refer- 
ring to  it  here,  I  can  hardly  do  better,  if  I  wish  to  give 
my  readers  some  idea  of  the  life  at  Fryston,  than  glance 
rapidly  through  its  pages.  The  first  page  of  all  (August, 
1859)  records  a  gathering  which  must  have  been 
memorable,  seeing  that  it  included  Sir  Richard  Burton, 
Mr.  Mansfield  Parkyns  of  Abyssinia,  Mr.  John 


MARRIAGE.  463 

Petherick  of  Khartoum,  Sir  Charles  MacCarthy,  James 
Spedding,  Gr.  S.  Venables,  and  W.  E.  Forster.  A  little 
later  and  we  find  another  party,  including  Mr.  Hay- 
ward,  Mr.  Jeaffresou  Hogg,  Mr.  Aubrey  de  Vere,  and 
Lord  John  Manners.  In  1860  the  house  is  found 
sheltering  at  the  same  moment  people  so  various  in 
degree  as  Mrs.  Procter,  Lord  and  Lady  Lyveden, 
Wilkie  Collins,  Eicciotti  Garibaldi,  Mr.  Stansfeld,  and 
Mr.  Hayward.  A  few  days  later  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes 
joins  James  Spedding  and  Arthur  Hugh  Clough  the 
poet ;  whilst  the  next  names  of  note  that  meet  the 
eye  (October  27th,  1860)  are  those  of  the  Archbishop 
of  York,  and  Lord  and  Lady  Palmerston. 

A  year  later  and  we  find  the  Due  d'Aumale  and  his 
nephew  the  Due  de  Chartres  meeting  George  Bunsen, 
the  Duke  of  Eutland,  and  "  Jacob  Omnium  "  (M.  J. 
Higgins),  at  the  same  hospitable  board.  The  reader 
would,  indeed,  be  wearied  with  anything  like  a  full 
list  of  the  notable  gatherings  of  which  Fryston  Hall 
was  the  scene  after  the  marriage  of  Milnes.  One  or 
two  names  only  must  be  mentioned  in  passing,  in 
addition  to  those  which  have  already  been  given.  For 
example,  in  1861  the  great  poet  whom  Milnes  was 
almost  the  first  to  estimate  at  his  true  value,  and 
whom  he  befriended  throughout  the  remainder  of  his 
life,  Algernon  Swinburne,  is  first  found  visiting  at 
Fryston,  one  of  his  fellow  -  guests  being  W.  H. 
Thompson,  the  late  Master  of  Trinity.  It  was  a  few 
months  later  that  the  house  was  the  scene  of  an 
incident  of  historic  interest.  Milnes  had  gathered 


464  THE    LIFE    OF   LOUD    HOUGHTON. 

around  him  some  of  his  English  and  American  friends, 
including  Sir  Andrew  and  Lady  Buchanan,  and  Mr. 
Adams,  the  American  Minister  in  England.  Among 
those  invited  to  meet  the  distinguished  guests  were 
Mr.  Froude,  Mr.  Forster,  Mrs.  Gaskell  (the  well-known 
writer),  and  Lord  and  Lady  Wensleydale.  Whilst  the 
party  were  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  pleasures  of 
life  at  Fryston,  a  telegram  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Adams,  which  he  quietly  perused  and  put  in  his 
pocket.  A  visit  to  the  ruins  of  Pontefract  Castle  had 
been  planned,  and  a  party  set  off  thither;  nor  was 
it  until  some  time  had  been  spent  in  examining 
the  remains  of  that  famous  building  that  Mr. 
Adams  told  his  fellow  -  guests  of  the  capture  of 
Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell  by  a  United  States 
man-of-war  whilst  they  were  passengers  on  an 
Engrlish  mail  steamer.  With  characteristic  coolness 

o 

the  American  Minister  remained  quietly  at  Fryston 
for  some  days  after  that  event,  preferring  to  keep 
himself  as  far  apart  as  possible  from  the  passionate 
excitement  of  London  until  he  was  in  full  possession 
of  all  the  facts  relating  to  the  momentous  incident. 
It  was  certainly  not  a  misfortune,  in  the  interests  of 
the  peace  of  the  world,  that  at  such  a  time  he  should 
have  been  residing  under  the  roof  of  so  warm  a  friend 
of  the  United  States  as  Monckton  Milnes  proved 
himself  to  be. 

As  page  after  page  of  the  record  of  these  bygone 
hospitalities  is  turned,  the  eye  meets  such  names  as 
these  : — Hamilton  Aide,  Lawrence  Oliphant,  E.  Temple, 


MARRIAGE.  465 

W.  M.  Eossetti,  Sir  Wm.  Stirling,  C  J.  Vaughan, 
W.  M.  Thackeray  (whose  last  visit  to  Fryston  was  paid 
in  the  April  preceding  his  death),  Herbert  Spencer, 
Hermann  Merivale,  Cooraara  Swamy  (the  first  non- 
Christian  Hindoo  barrister),  Anninius  Vambery,  Mary 
Mohl,  Julian  Fane,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Henry  Fawcett,  Anthony  Trollope,  Edmund  Waterton 
(the  Naturalist),  George  Meredith,  Frederic  Harrison, 
John  Morley,  Fitzjames  Stephen,  Father  Hyacinthe, 
Reverdy  Johnson  (some  time  American  Minister  in  this 
country),  Richard  Doyle,  Robert  Browning,  Dean 
Stanley,  and  a  host  of  others  not  less  familiar  to  the 
students  of  politics  and  literature,  in  addition  to  those 
of  many  political  and  social  notabilities.  It  was,  in- 
deed, one  of  Milnes's  chief  pleasures  to  bring  together 
under  his  own  roof  those  persons  living  in  circles  so 
completely  apart  that  under  ordinary  circumstances  they 
would  have  little  chance  of  meeting.  Many  men,  of 
course,  have  done  this  under  cover  of  the  comparatively 
limited  hospitalities  of  a  London  season,  when  guests 
are  dismissed  a  few  hours  after  they  have  been  first  re- 
ceived ;  but  comparatively  few  have  thus  made  their  own 
homes  into  "  an  inn  of  strange  meetings."  This,  how- 
ever, was  what  Milnes  did  all  through  his  life,  and  many 
a  man  now  holding  a  good  position  in  the  literary  or 
political  world  owes  his  success  in  no  small  degree  to 
the  friendships  which  he  was  enabled  to  form  under  the 
hospitable  roof  of  Fryston  Hall. 

One  meeting  still  remains  to  be  noticed ;  it  is  that 
which  occurred  in  March,  1866,  when  Carlyle,  on  his 


466  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

way  to  Scotland  to  enjoy  the  great  triumph  of  his  life 
in  his  installation  as  Lord  Eector,  and  to  meet  at 
the  same  time  the  bitterest  of  his  griefs,  stayed  at 
Fryston  with  his  companions,  Professors  Tyndall  and 
Huxley — an  incident  to  which  I  shall  revert  later  in 
my  story. 

Naturally  among  the  letters  from  grateful  guests 
bound  up  with  this  Visitors'  Book  are  many  of  in- 
terest. One  only  need  be  given  as  a  characteristic 
example : — 

Herbert  Spencer  to  Lady  Houghton. 
Athenteum  Club,  Pall  Mall,  April  Qth,  1872. 

DEAR  LADY  HOUGHTON,  —  When  I  left  town  I  was  still 
suffering  from  a  long  fit  of  dyspepsia,  joined  with  uneasy  bad 
nights.  While  at  Fryston,  both  the  original  evil  and  its  effect 
disappeared;  my  sleep,  indeed,  having  been  better  than  I 
remember  for  a  long  time  past.  And  now  that  I  have  got  back 
to  my  task,  I  find  myself  in  very  good  working  order.  As  I 
hold  it  to  be  a  clearly- proved  fact  that  an  agreeable  emotional 
state  is  of  all  curative  agents  the  most  potent,  it  is  clear  to  me 
that  I  must  have  derived  much  pleasure  from  my  stay  under 
your  hospitable  roof,  and  that  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  an 
important  benefit  in  the  way  of  health  and  efficiency. 

I  am  very  sincerely  yours, 

HERBERT  SPENCER. 

No  record,  alas!  remains  of  the  talk  with  which 
the  pleasant  rooms  of  Fryston  rang  in  the  days  when 
their  master  was  entertaining  men  and  women  as  dis- 
tinguished as  those  whose  names  I  have  given.  The 
many  good  sayings,  the  shrewd  views  of  individuals 


MARRIAGE.  467 

and  affairs,  the  stores  of  out-of-the-way  incidents  in 
history,  have  all  sunk  into  silence  ;  but  so  long  as  any 
live  who  were  privileged  to  partake  of  those  hospitalities, 
and  to  witness  those  meetings  of  men  and  women  of 
genius,  their  memory  cannot  fade,  and  the  name  of 
Fryston  will  be  cherished  in  the  innermost  recesses  of 
the  heart. 

The  first  Christmas  of  their  married  life  was  spent 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milnes  at  Fryston,  which  henceforth 
became  their  country  home,  the  house  at  16,  Upper 
Brook  Street  being  their  town  residence  during  many 
succeeding  years.  Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes  was  now  in 
declining  health,  and  spent  his  time  almost  exclusively 
in  his  Yorkshire  home.  Between  him  and  his  son's 
wife  the  warmest  affection  existed,  and  during  his  last 
years  he  not  only  delighted  in  having  her  near  him, 
but  corresponded  constantly  with  her  both  upon  family 
and  upon  public  affairs.  At  Fryston  she  took  her  place 
from  the  first  at  the  head  of  the  house,  Mr.  Milnes's 
unmarried  sisters,  the  aunts  to  whom  Milnes  himself 
was  so  deeply  attached,  having  some  years  before  this 
taken  up  their  residence  at  Torquay  in  a  house  called 
after  the  family  seat,  Fryston  Lodge. 

A  calamity  of  no  ordinary  description  marked  the 
opening  of  1852  in  the  life  of  Milnes.  This  was  the 
loss  of  his  much-loved  friend  Eliot  Warburton  in  the 
steamer  Amazon,  which  on  the  4th  of  January  was 
destroyed  by  fire  at  sea.  Warburton  was  on  his  way 
to  the  West  Indies.  He  had  made  his  mark  in  litera- 
ture by  his  well-known  book  "  The  Crescent  and  the 


468  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Cross,"  a  work  which  he  had  dedicated  to  Milnes.  Of 
a  singularly  lovable  disposition,  he  had  been  one  of 
Milnes's  truest  and  most  sympathetic  friends,  and  the 
latter  felt  his  death  acutely. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Fryston,  Jan.  21*J,  1852. 

MY  DEAE  FEIEND, — Since  Hawes*  has  left  the  Colonial 
Office,  I  send  this  by  the  ordinary  channel.  With  his  retirement 
and  the  dismissal  of  Lord  Palmerston  all  my  dilettante  officially 
is  at  an  end,  and  I  retire  into  the  modesty  of  private  ignorance. 
As  far  as  you  are  concerned,  you  are  so  well  established  on  your 
own  foundation  that  it  is,  perhaps,  better  that  there  can  be  no 
charge  of  nepotism,  whatever  happens  to  you.  We  are  here  for  the 
last  fortnight  to  entertain  the  neighbours  and  introduce  my  wife. 
She,  however,  has  been  confined  to  her  dressing-room  ever  since 
she  has  been  here.  .  .  .  We  are  expecting  your  brother  to 
spend  next  week  here  with  us.  The  last  days  for  me  have  been 
dimmed — I  might  say,  darkened — by  the  awful  calamity  that 
has  enveloped  my  dear  Eliot  Warburton.  There  was  no  man  to 
whom  I  owed  a  similar  debt  of  affection,  so  constant  and  so 
enduring.  Ever  since  we  have  been  together  at  Cambridge  he 
had  looked  to  my  friendship  as  a  portion  of  his  own  inner  life ; 
and  if  others  have  more  moved  my  sensibilities,  there  was, 
perhaps,  no  one  intimate  whom  I  so  thoroughly  esteemed.  He 
had  all  the  good  of  the  Irish  nature — its  gracefulness  and  its 
vivacity — combined  with  the  very  chivalry  of  truth.  He  has 
left  a  young  wife  and  three  little  children ;  they  are  what  one 
has  really  to  pity  and  lament  for.  Mrs.  Procter  wrote  to  me 
from  the  first  with  little  hope,  for  she  said,  "  He  was  not  a  man  to 
have  left  a  ship  as  long  as  there  was  a  woman  or  a  child  on  board  of 
it."  Indeed,  if  there  is  a  final  justice  in  the  world,  it  must  be  well 
with  him  wherever  he  is.  Lord  Palmerston's  dismissal  could  not 
have  surprised  any  one  more  than  it  did  himself.  It  was  purely 

*  Sir  Benjamin  Hawes,  MacCaitliy's  father-in-law. 


MARRIAGE.  469 

what  Kingsley  calls  a  something  which  comes  over  Lord  John 
about  Christmas,  which  one  would  call "  calenture  "  if  it  happened 
in  summer,  which  made  him  write  the  Durham  letter  in  1850 
and  eject  his  best  colleague  in  1851.  The  cause  was  totally 
inadequate.  Lord  P.  has  a  great  dislike  to  the  Orleans 
family,  and  a  strong  distrust  of  their  feeling  to  England ;  and 
thus  he  saw  without  dissatisfaction  their  project  of  appealing  to 
France  by  arms  or  otherwise  put  an  end  to.  But  he  said  nothing 
officially — nothing  which  in  any  way  compromised  the  Govern- 
ment. We  were  to  have  met  the  Greys  at  Broadlands  for 
Christmas — the  very  week  the  fracas  occurred.  Lord  P.  is  very 
anxious  that  it  should  be  understood  that  Lord  G.  has  not  only 
nothing  to  do  with  this  dismissal,  but  that  they  had  got  on  perfectly 
well  together  there.  In  truth,  poor  Lord  Grey  has  quite  enough 
on  his  shoulders  without  this  responsibility.  The  effect  in 
Europe  has  been  humiliating  for  England.  Here  the  French 
coup  d'etat  has  absorbed  all  other  subjects.  M.  Thiers,  in  a 
letter  to  me  yesterday,  writes: — "Si  vous  savez  combien  les 
citoyens  eclaires  se  defendent  contre  les  violences  et  les  corrup- 
tions d'une  indigne  et  ridicule  tyrannie,  vous  verrez  que  la 
France  soit  digne  de  1'estime  des  nations  civilisees :  elle  est  plus 
a  plaindre  qu'a  blamer,  et  pour  moi  elle  est  toujours  a  aimer/' 
He  intends  to  settle  in  England  during  his  exile.  We  were 
going  to  France  this  next  month,  but  it  would  so  worry  me  to 
see  my  old  breakfaster  L.  N.  in  his  sham  Ca3sarian  attitude  that 
I  have  not  the  heart  for  it.  With  my  wife's  best  regards  and 
mine  to  yourself  and  the  giovine  Cingalese. 

Your  affectionate 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

The   letter   of    Thiers   referred   to    above    was   as 

follows  : — 

A.  Thiers  to  R.  M.  M. 

London  (Clarendon  Hotel),  January  \%th,  1852. 
MY   DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — I   cannot  thank  you  sufficiently 
for  your   very  kind  letter  and   invitation.      I  should  be   most 


470  THE   LIFE  OF  LORD   HOUGIITOtf. 

happy  to  spend  a  few  hours  at  Fryston  Hall  with  you  and 
your  family  if  I  could  make  time  between  this  and  February 
3rd.  I  have  to  set  up  house  with  my  family,  which  takes  up 
a  great  deal  of  time,  and,  besides  that,  a  promise  to  fulfil  to 
Lady  Ashburton.  I  know  I  shall  not  find  a  moment  between 
this  and  the  meeting  of  your  Parliament,  which,  I  suppose,  will 
bring  you  all  to  London.  But  perhaps  you  will  grant  me  a 
future  opportunity  of  availing  myself  of  your  kind  invitation, 
since  I  am  likely  to  remain  in  exile  for  some  long  time  yet. 

Thank  you  also  for  your  sympathy  for  my  unhappy  country. 
If  you  knew  the  sad  condition,  if  you  knew  how  the  enlightened 
classes  are  struggling  against  the  violence  and  the  corruption 
of  an  unworthy  and  ridiculous  tyranny,  you  would  see  that 
France  is  deserving  of  the  esteem  of  civilised  nations.  She  is 
more  to  be  pitied  than  to  be  blamed,  and  I  think  always  to  be 
loved. 

Good-bye,  dear  friend.  I  hope,  when  we  are  settled,  you 
will  not  neglect  the  poor  exile,  &c.  &c.  &c.,  A.  TRIERS. 

Duvergier  and  D.  Remusat  are  in  Brussels.  I  shall  suggest 
to  them  to  come  to  London  by-and-by. 


A.  de  Tocqueville  to  R.  M.  M. 

Paris,  Feb.  $th,  1852. 

Thank  you,  my  dear  Milnes,  for  having  introduced  Miss 
Wynn  to  us ;  I  thought  her,  as  you  said  she  was,  a  very 
distinguished  person,  and  hope  to  have  many  more  opportunities 
of  meeting  her  before  she  leaves  Paris.  Mademoiselle  de  Tocque- 
ville finds  equal  pleasure  in  her  acquaintance. 

I  can  quite  understand  your  feelings  which  would  have  made 
your  journey  to  Paris  undesirable,  and  I  congratulate  you  on 
the  reason  that  made  it  impossible,  and  although  I  am  very 
sorry  indeed  not  to  see  you,  I  can  only  be  glad  for  your  sake. 

My  health,  which  you  kindly  ask  after,  is  very  good,  and  so 
far  I  have  every  reason  to  be  thankful  for  having  spent  last 
year  in  Italy.  As  for  my  spirits,  they  are,  of  course,  sad  for 


MARRIAGE.  471 

the  present,  anxious  for  the  future,  but  not  depressed.  For  a 
long  time  I  have  wished  to  retire  from  public  life — at  least,  for 
a  few  years — in  order  that  I  might  devote  myself  to  a  great 
work  I  had  already  planned. 

I  am,  therefore,  one  of  those  least  to  be  pitied  among  all 
the  number  of  men  who  are  "  thrown  out/'  I  might  even  say 
that  I  am  happier  than  I  have  been  for  years  if  the  pleasures 
of  private  life  could  ever  make  up  for  so  great  a  public  mis- 
fortune as  that  which  has  befallen  us. 

According  to  your  English  papers,  and  a  conversation  with 
Miss  W.  Wynn,  you  must  have  been  in  England  seriously 
anticipating  an  immediate  war.  I  confess  I  have  always  con- 
sidered this  chimerical,  and  though  I  have  no  doubt  all  this 
will  eventually  end  in  war,  it  will  not  be  immediately.  This 
apprehension  has  hastened  everything,  it  seems  to  me ;  and  as 
for  the  British  Parliament,  it  has  displayed  its  fears  in  an 
extraordinary  manner.  All  your  politicians,  in  alluding  to 
the  late  events  in  France,  have  spoken  in  prudent,  moderate, 
quasi-approving  terms  of  the  power  which  has  just  succeeded 
in  reinstituting  liberty  on  the  Continent — terms  which  they  had 
not  accustomed  Europe  to  hear  of  late.  It  is  plain  we  are  no 
longer  dealing  with  a  King  of  Naples,  but  with  the  head  of  our 
nation,  and  the  chief  of  an  army  of  400,000  men.  If  I  have 
suffered  a  little  as  a  moralist,  I  have  been  all  the  more  gratified 
as  a  Frenchman. 

Good-bye,  my  dear  Milnes ;  remember  us  kindly  to  our  dear 
Madame  Grote,  whom  we  wish  for  every  day,  and  to  Senior, 
and  believe  me,  &c.  &c.  &c., 

A.   DE  TOCQUEVILLB. 

P.S, — I  have  rejected  all  idea  of  candidature  for  the  coming 
elections,  as  one  cannot  treat  seriously  such  a  parody  of  a  Liberal 
Government  as  the  one  now  forming.  You  know  that  this  new 
Assembly  amounts  to  nothing.  It  has  no  publicity ;  it  can  only 
carry  the  Budget,  without  power  to  amend  it ;  and  you  have,  no 
doubt,  heard  that  disapproving  candidates  may  neither  address 
their  electors,  nor  write  to  them,  nor  form  any  committee,  nor 


472  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

go  about  freely  without  incurring  the  penalty  of  exile.  In  a 
word,  the  new  Government  is  carrying  out  its  plan  of  governing 
with  the  help  of  peasants  and  soldiers,  and  adopting  only  the 
worst  feature  of  democracy — the  brutal  force  of  numbers,  a 
universal  vote  amidst  the  gloom  and  silence  that  comes  from 
despotism.  You  will  agree  with  me  it  is  better  to  be  writing 
books  than  meddling  with  such  matters. 

Very  early  in  the  year  1852  Milnes  and  his  wife 
took  up  their  residence  at  No.  16,  Upper  Brook  Street, 
and  here  he  at  once  began  to  entertain  on  a  very  consider- 
able scale,  so  that  in  course  of  time  the  house  became 
famous  in  tlie  annals  of  London  hospitality.  His  marriage 
made  little,  if  any,  difference  in  the  catholicity  which  he 
had  hitherto  shown  in  the  dispensation  of  his  hospitality. 
The  books  of  guests,  which  his  wife  kept  from  that  time 
forward,  contain  the  names  of  almost  all  the  celebrities 
of  the  time  ;  and  each  particular  party  that  was  given 
was  made  agreeable  by  the  contrasts  which  the  various 
diners  or  breakfasters  offered  to  each  other  in  tastes,  in 
position,  and  in  character.  The  first  of  these  little 
books  bears  on  the  fly-leaf,  in  Milnes's  handwriting,  a 
somewhat  cynical  quotation.  It  purports  to  be  an  extract 
from  the  travels  of  a  Phoenician  in  England  about  the 
year  1 500,  and  is  as  follows : — "  The  English  would  sooner 
give  five  or  six  ducats  to  furnish  an  entertainment  for  a 
person,  than  a  groat  to  assist  him  in  any  distress."  No 
man  could  better  afford  than  Milnes  to  preface  the 
record  of  his  hospitalities  by  such  an  apothegm  as  this, 
for,  whatever  might  be  the  amount  which  he  spent  in 
the  entertainment  of  his  friends,  and  it  was  undoubt- 
edly very  large — so  large  as  occasionally  almost  to 


MARRIAGE.  473 

embarrass  him — it  fell  short  of  that  which  he  dispensed 
(generally  unknown  to  the  world  at  large)  in  aid  to  the 
distressed.  It  was  on  Saturday,  the  3rd  of  April,  1852, 
that  Milnes  gave  his  first  dinner  party  as  a  married  man, 
and,  naturally  enough,  on  this  occasion  he  entertained 
chiefly  old  family  friends  of  his  own  and  his  wife's.  But 
on  the  following  Tuesday  the  list  of  guests  at  dinner 
comprised  M.  and  Mme.  Vandeweyer ;  Lord  and  Lady 
Palmerston  ;  Lords  Clanricarde,  Granville,  and  Ash- 
burton  ;  M.  Thiers ;  and  Sir  James  Graham.  A  little 
later  in  the  same  month  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Carlyle,  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Maurice,  Mr.  Kinglake,  Mr.  Spedding,  and 
Mr.  Venables,  are  among  the  guests  at  one  dinner; 
whilst  at  another  Lord  and  Lady  Goderich  and  Mr. 
George  Bunsen  are  invited  to  meet  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Holland,  Louis  Blanc,  and  Mr.  Clough  the  poet. 
Among  the  other  dinner  guests  of  this  season  of  1852 
are  to  be  found  the  names  of  Mr.  Macaulay,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Dickens,  Mrs.  Procter,  Sir  Edwin  Landseer,  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  Mr.  Hayward,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Browning,  Mr.  Tennyson,  Mr.  Thackeray,  and  Mr. 
Delane,  in  addition  to  many  peers  and  politicians  of 
eminence.  Milnes  kept  up  his  habit  of  giving  break- 
fasts, and  during  the  year  had  many  parties  of  this 
nature.  In  the  summer  the  first  child  of  the  marriage 
was  born  (a  daughter),  who  was  called  by  the  old  family 
name  of  Amicia. 

During  the  Parliamentary  Session  of  1852  Milnes 
had  made  an  important  motion  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  the  subject  of  the  foreign  refugees  whom  the 


474  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

events  of  the  recent  period  of  revolution  had  driven 
to  take  asylum  in  this  country.  His  speech  on  the 
occasion  again  bore  emphatic  testimony  to  his  sympathy 
with  the  Liberal  cause  throughout  Europe,  and  to  his 
detestation  of  all  forms  of  tyranny,  but,  above  all,  of  that 
form  which  was  associated  with  the  despotic  government 
of  Austria  in  Italy  and  Hungary.  Perhaps  in  recalling 
this  speech  it  will  no  longer  seem  surprising  that  the 
Austrian  Government  should  have  refused  to  allow 
Milnes,  when  on  his  wedding  tour,  to  enter  Hungary. 
I  refer  to  the  speech  itself  now  chiefly  for  two  reasons 
— first,  in  order  that  I  may  trace  the  continuance  of 
Milnes's  interest  in  foreign  politics,  and  the  special 
direction  in  which  his  mind  moved  ;  and,  secondly, 
because  of  the  evidence  which  it  affords  of  his  growing 
inclination  to  take  Lord  Palmerston  as  his  leader  alike 
in  home  and  foreign  affairs.  Indeed,  no  one  can  follow 
his  public  utterances  from  this  period  onwards  without 
seeing  that  he  had  now  found  in  Palmerston  that  which 
he  had  never  had  in  Peel — a  leader  whom  he  could 
trust  implicitly,  and  follow  closely.  The  time  came,  it 
is  true,  when  on  great  questions  of  English  policy 
his  mind  advanced  far  beyond  the  point  reached  by 
Palmerston,  and  in  domestic  affairs  he  identified  himself 
with  a  Liberalism  more  robust  than  that  professed  by 
that  eminent  statesman ;  but  this  was  not  until  after 
Palmerston  himself  had  passed  away.  During  his  life- 
time he  in  the  main  continued  to  be  his  warm  personal 
adherent  and  his  faithful  political  follower. 

Among  the  many  varied  interests  which  engaged  his 


MARRIAGE.  475 

atteotion  at  this  time,  one  or  two,  indicated  in  his  cor- 
respondence, are  worth  noticing.  Several  years  before 
this  he  had  become  acquainted  with  a  young  lady 
whose  name  was  shortly  to  be  honoured  throughout  the 
world,  but  who  at  this  period  was  living  in  the  tranquil 
obscurity  of  home  life.  This  was  Miss  Florence 
Nightingale.  That  distinguished  woman  had  not  yet 
found  her  vocation,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  lesson 
which  she  was  so  soon  to  teach  the  world  from  the 
cypress-clad  heights  of  Scutari.  But  she  was  full, 
even  then,  of  schemes  for  the  benefit  of  her  fellow- 
creatures',  and  she  had  learned  to  look  to  Milnes  for 
sympathy,  advice,  and  help. 

Miss   Florence  Nightingale   to  R.   M.   M. 

1852. 

I  am  going  abroad  soon.  Before  I  go  I  am  thinking  of 
asking  you  whether  you  would  look  over  certain  things  which  I 
have  written  for  the  working  men  on  the  subject  of  a  belief  in 
a  God.  All  the  moral  and  intellectual  among  them  seem 
going  over  to  atheism,  or  at  least  to  a  vague  kind  of  theism.  I 
have  read  them  to  one  or  two,  and  they  have  liked  them.  I 
should  have  liked  to  have  asked  you  if  you  think  them  likely  to 
be  read  by  more,  but  you  are  perhaps  not  interested  in  the 
subject,  or  you  have  no  time,  which  is  fully  taken  up  with  other 
things.  If  you  tell  me  this,  it  will  be  no  surprise  or  disappoint- 
ment to  me. 

Pray  believe  me  yours  very  truly, 

FLORENCE  NIGHTINGALE. 

Of  course  Milnes  had  time,  as  he  had  sympathy, 
for  every  well-meant  effort  on  the  part  of  one  anxious 
to  help  the  world  in  its  struggle  with  the  forces  of 
darkness,  and  the  friendship  between  him  and  Miss 


476  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

Nightingale  was  strengthened  by  this  appeal,  bearing 
fruit  later  on,  at  the  time  when  the  heroic  English- 
woman was  waging  war  against  red  tape  and  official 
superstition  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus. 

It  was  at  this  time,  too,  that  he  and  Mrs.  Gaskell 
were  endeavouring  to  discover  some  means  of  brighten- 
ing the  path  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  whose  loneliness  amid 
her  fame  had  touched  him  keenly.  His  own  idea  had 
been  to  procure  for  her  a  pension  from  the  State,  but 
Mrs.  Graskell's  womanly  intuition  suggested  another 
mode  of  giving  the  desired  aid. 

Mrs.  Gaskell  to  R.  M.  M. 

Manchester,  October  29^,  1852. 

MY  DEAR  Sm, — With  skilful  diplomacy,  for  which  I  admire 
myself  extremely,  I  have  obtained  the  address  we  want : — "  The 
Rev.  A.  B.  Nicholls,  Kirk  Smeaton,  Nr.  Pontefract,  Yorkshire." 
.  .  .  I  felt  sure  you  would  keep  the  story  secret ;  if  my  well- 
meant  treachery  becomes  known  to  her,  I  shall  lose  her  friend- 
ship, which  I  prize  most  highly.  I  have  been  thinking  over 
little  bits  of  the  conversation  we  had  relating  to  a  pension.  I  don't 
think  she  would  take  it,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  j£100  a 
year,  given  as  acknowledgment  of  his  merits  as  a  good  faithful 
clergyman,  would  give  her  ten  times  the  pleasure  that  £200  a 
year  would  do  if  bestowed  upon  her  in  her  capacity  as  a  writer. 
I  am  sure  he  is  a  thoroughly  good,  hard-working,  self-denying 
curate.  Dr.  Hook  has  unluckily  just  filled  up  his  staff  of 
rmrates  (excuse  me  if,  being-  a  Dissenter,  I  use  wrong  words ; 
"  staff "  does  look  military) .  Her  father's  only  reason  for  his 
violent  and  virulent  opposition  is  Mr.  Nicholls's  utter  want  of 
money  or  friends  to  help  him  to  any  professional  advancement. 
And  now  I  won't  worry  you  any  more.  May  I  send  my  kind 
regards  to  Mrs.  Milnes  ?  yours  very  truly^ 

E.  C.  GASKELL. 


MAERIAGE.  477 

It  is  perhaps  superfluous  to  remind  the  reader  that 
not  long  after  this  letter  was  written  Mr.  Nicholls 
became  the  husband  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  but  in  the 
interval  Milnes  did  what  he  could,  for  the  sake  of  the 
author  of  "  Jane  Eyre,"  to  advance  his  interests. 

Yet  another  letter  belonging  to  this  autumn  of  1852 
throws  light  upon  another  aspect  of  his  life,  and  is  of 
interest  for  the  writer's  sake  also. 

T.  B.  Macaulay  to  R.  M.  M. 

Albany,  November  20^,  1852. 

DEAR  MILNES, — I  am  sorry  that  I  have  made  an  appoint- 
ment, on  business,  which  will  make  it  impossible  for  me  to 
breakfast  with  you  on  Monday.  You  might  almost  as  well 
have  asked  Sir  Benjamin  Hall  as  me  to  meet  my  Lord  of 
Oxford,  for  if  the  Convocation  had  gone  on  wrangling  a  day 
longer,  I  should  have  broken  forth  like  Elihu.  "I  will  answer 
also  my  part :  I  also  will  show  my  opinion.  For  I  am  full  of 
matter  :  the  spirit  within  me  constraineth  me.  I  will  speak, 
that  I  may  be  refreshed  :  I  will  open  my  lips  and  answer.  Let 
me  not,  I  pray  you,  accept  any  man's  person :  neither  let  me 
give  flattering  titles  unto  man."  There  are  certainly  some 
great  ecclesiastical  personages  to  whom  I  should  not  have  given 
nattering  titles.  Ever  yours  truly, 

T.  B.  MACAULAY. 

Though  Macaulay  was  unable  to  be  present  at  the 
breakfast  in  question,  it  duly  took  place,  and  among 
those  who  met  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  were  his  fellow- 
prelate  of  St.  David's,  Dr.  Whewell,  and  Lords 
Ashburton  and  Groderich. 

As  I  have  had  occasion  more  than  once  to  mention 
the  name  of  Lord  Ashburton,  it  is  fitting  that  I  should 


478  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

say  something  of  one  of  the  great  friendships  of  Milnes's 
life — that  which  bound  him  closely  to  that  nobleman 
and  to  his  wife.  The  world  has  learned  something,  from 
the  Life  of  Carlyle,  of  Bath  House  and  the  Grange. 
For  many  years  they  were  among  the  most  important 
centres  of  social  life  in  England.  The  first  Lady  Ash- 
burton  reigned  as  a  queen  over  a  coterie  of  admirers  who 
included  many  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in 
England ;  whilst  the  fine  qualities  of  her  husband  added 
greatly  to  the  attractions  of  the  home  over  which  she 
presided.  She  had  no  more  devoted  admirer  than 
Milnes,  and  both  in  his  published  "  Monographs  "  and 
his  private  Commonplace  Books  he  has  noted  not  a  few 
of  those  brilliant  and  witty  sayings  which  secured  for 
her  a  leading  place  among  the  hommes  et  dames  d*  esprit 
of  her  time.  For  her  husband,  Milnes  entertained  a 
feeling  almost  of  reverence,  so  highly  did  he  esteem  his 
character.  Alike  at  Bath  House  and  the  Grange  he 
was  a  regular  and  welcome  guest ;  hardly  anywhere,  in- 
deed, did  his  own  brilliant  social  qualities  show  to  more 
advantage  than  in  that  atmosphere  of  wit,  refinement, 
literary  taste,  and  cosmopolitan  knowledge. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1852  Lord  Derby's  first  Ad- 
ministration came  to  an  end  after  a  brief  existence  of 
ten  months,  and  Lord  Aberdeen  came  into  power,  with  a 
curious  reversal  of  popular  expectation  in  his  distribu- 
tion of  patronage,  Lord  John  Eussell  being  his  Foreign 
Secretary,  whilst  Lord  Palmerston  was  relegated  to  the 
Home  Office.  Milnes  was  among  those  who  regarded 
these  two  appointments  with  disfavour.  He  kept  up 


MARRIAGE.  479 

his  personal  friendship  with  Disraeli,  whose  position 
as  leader  of  the  Conservative  party  in  the  House  of 
Commons  was  now  fully  recognised,  though  hardly 
approved  of  by  many  of  those  who  professed  to  be 
his  followers. 

Mr.  Disraeli  to  R.  P.  Milnes. 

East  Indian  Committee,  March  kth,  1853. 
MY  DEAR  SQUIRE, — I  have  little  to  say,  and  write  from  the 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  where  I  have  spent  the  whole  morning. 
Everything  is  very  flat,  though  our  friends  keep  together  beyond 
my  hopes.  The  other  day  I  sounded  the  bugle  and  exercised 
them  a  little,  and  to-night  we  are  to  have  a  regular  encounter. 
India  and  the  Income  Tax  are  the  features  of  the  future,  and  may 
disturb,  though  I  should  hardly  think  dislodge,  the  Government. 
We  think,  and  talk  very  often,  of  Fryston  and  Bawtry  as  of  a 
dream,  or  the  memory  of  a  pleasant  book.  How  many  characters, 
and  how  many  incidents  !  Among  them  a  church  in  flames ; 
poor  Dr.  Sharpe  !  Vernon  Smith  came  to  me  yesterday  to  beg 
me  to  choose  a  day  to  drive  with  him,  as  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was 
so  disappointed  that  he  had  not  met  me  at  Fryston  or  Burleigh 
(which  latter  place  we  quitted  the  day  he  arrived)  that  he  had 
devised  this  means  for  our  meeting.  Is  he  to  convert  me,  or  the 
reverse;  or  is  he  an  old  Whig  as  disgusted  as  V.  S.  himself? 
However,  on  Tuesday  next  we  are  to  dine  together.  Adieu,  my 
dearest  Squire.  D. 

^ 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Feb.,  1853. 

The  grand  theatricals  in  France  go  on.  I  have  always  a 
feeling  that  12  o'clock  must  strike  soon,  and  all  Cinderella's 
splendour  vanish  into  air.  At  the  Emperor's  marriage  the 
contrast  between  the  gorgeous  pomp  and  the  disregard  and 
contempt  of  the  fete-loving  people  was  astonishing.  One  of 
the  nouvelles  el,  la  main  is  that,  on  returning  to  the  Tuileries, 


480  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

the  Empress  threw  herself  into  her  husband's  arms,  exclaiming, 
"  Louis,  je  t'ai  perdu/'  It  does  not  appear  exactly  who  heard 
this.  Our  "defences"  are  going-  on  at  a  great  rate,  and  the 
militia  is  to  be  very  actively  organised.  I  was  quite  amused  to 
find  myself  so  much  amused  as  I  was  with  my  mild  soldiering.* 
Our  dear  Italy  is  one  dungeon.  It  looks  a  hard  and  long 
struggle  for  our  poor  Italians  to  go  through,  to  raise  them 
from  their  corso-cafe-cicisbeo  character  to  the  dignity  of  free 

men.      Piedmont  gets  on  capitally. is  here,  moving 

heaven  and  earth  to  get  promotion.  If  all  my  thirty  cousins 
had  given  me  the  trouble  he  has,  I  should  have  left  Parliament 
long  ago.  I  take  that  institution  very  easily,  and  am  content  to 
occupy  an  unambitious  position  as  supporter  of  this  Government 
we  have  at  last  got,  and  which  we  ought  to  have  had  two  years 
ago.  With  my  wife's  best  regards  to  you  and  yours, 

Yours  affectionately, 

E.  M.  MlLNES. 

During  the  Session  Milnes  had  been  engaged  in 
trying  to  bring  about  one  small  reform  at  the  request  of 
Mr.  Carlyle,  the  abolition  of  the  duty  on  foreign  books. 

If  you  could  persuade  Gladstone  [wrote  Carlyle]  to  take  off 
that  extremely  scrubby  little  tax  on  foreign  books — or,  rather,  on 
old  foreign  books,  for  the  modern  are  oftenest  worth  less  than 
nothing,  and  may  be  burnt  at  St.  Catherine's  for  aught  I  care — 
he  may  do  a  perceptible  benefit  to  the  one  or  two  serious  students 
still  extant  in  this  country,  A  perceptible  benefit,  not  a  great 
one — ah  no ;  and  on  the  whole  if  he  won't,  and  can't,  the 
Muses  (with  Panizzi's  breech  seated  on  the  throat  of  them,  and 
little  conscious  of  crime  in  the  posture,  he  poor  devil  1 )  must 
still  try  to  live  if  they  can. 

Milnes  acted  upon  Carlyle's  request,  and  wrote  to 
Mr.  Gladstone,  who,  though  unable  to  act  at  the 

*  Millies  held  a  commission  in  the  2nd  West  Riding  Regiment  of 
Militia  from  1840  to  1854. 


MARRIAGE.  481 

• 

moment,  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  needed  reform,  and 
in  due  time  brought  it  about. 

Mrs.  Gaskell  had  just  published  her  remarkable 
story  called  "  Ruth,"  and  it  had  brought  upon  her  a 
certain  amount  of  censure  from  those  who  would  limit 
fiction  to  the  topics  which  may  be  discussed  openly  in 
drawing-rooms.  It  was  in  reply  to  a  letter  of  sym- 
pathy and  appreciation  from  Milnes  that  she  wrote  as 
follows  :  — 

Mrs.  Gag  Ml  to  R.  M.  M.  '  *- 


Plymouth  Grove,  Feb. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  been  told  that  I  ought  to  have 
too  much  "  self-respect  "  to  care  for  people's  opinions  on  what 
I  wrote  ;  but  though  in  some  instances  this  said  stoical  self- 
respect  would  have  saved  me  pain,  I  am  sure  I  would  not  pur- 
chase it  by  the  loss  of  the  zest  with  which  I  have  enjoyed  your 
approval.  I  am  so  glad  you  liked  "  Ruth/'  I  was  so  anxious 
about  her,  and  took  so  much  pains  over  writing  it,  that  I  lost 
my  own  power  of  judging,  and  could  not  tell  whether  I  had 
done  it  well  or  ill.  I  only  knew  how  very  close  to  my  heart  it 
had  come  from.  I  tried  to  make  both  the  story  and  the  writing 
as  quiet  as  I  could,  in  order  that  "  people  "  (my  great  bugbear) 
might  not  say  that  they  could  not  see  what  the  writer  felt  to 
be  a  very  plain  and  earnest  truth,  for  romantic  incidents  or 
exaggerated  writing.  But  I  have  no  right  to  presume  upon 
your  leisure,  so  I  will  only  say,  once  more,  thank  you  for  taking 
the  trouble  of  writing  to  express  what  you  felt. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  am  likely  to  be  in  town  soon  ;  but  if 
I  am,  I  shall  certainly  have  great  pleasure  in  letting  you  know. 

Yours  truly,  and  also  "  obliged/' 

E.  C.  GASKELL. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

CRIMEAN      WAR      DATS. 

Married  Life — Visit  to  Ireland — The  Eastern  Question — Correspondence  with 
Lady  Palmerston — A  Round  of  Visits — The  Crimean  War — The  Times' 
Account  of  the  Battle  of  the  Alma — The  Peelites — A  Ministerial  Crisis — 
Milnes  declines  Office — Miss  Nightingale  in  the  East — Harriet  Martineau 
— Death  of  Charlotte  Bronte — Paris  and  Vichy — Lines  on  Scutari — The 
British  Association  at  Glasgow — Visit  to  Hawarden — Peerage  offered  to 
Mr.  Pemberton  Milnes. 

A  NEW  source  of  information  opens  to  the  biographer 
from  this  point  in  Milnes's  life.  Henceforward,  so  long 
as  she  survived,  whenever  he  was  absent  from  his  wife, 
he  wrote  to  her  constantly.  His  letters  were  all  care- 
fully preserved  by  Mrs.  Milnes ;  but,  though  numerous 
and  full  of  interest,  they  are  in  themselves  more  frag- 
mentary than  his  correspondence  with  MacCarthy,  to 
whom,  owing  to  his  distance  from  England,  he  felt  it 
necessary,  when  he  wrote  at  all,  to  give  a  consecutive 
and  detailed  account  of  public  •  affairs,  as  well  as  of  his 
own  personal  fortunes.  Milnes's  letters  to  his  wife  are 
as  a  rule  brief  and  chatty — hints  of  what  he  was 
thinking  or  doing — rather  than  a  formal  statement; 
whilst  I  need  hardly  say  that  in  free  intercourse  with 
a  woman  whom  he  not  only  loved  as  a  wife,  but  to 
whom  he  always  looked  as  the  most  sympathetic  and 
intelligent  of  friends,  much  was  written  with  which  the 
world  at  large  can  have  no  concern.  The  reader  must 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DAYS.  483 

therefore  understand  that  the  extracts  which  I  make 
from  his  letters  to  Mrs.  Mimes  will,  of  necessity,  in 
most  cases  be  fragmentary,  and  that  they  by  no  means 
represent  in  its  entirety  a  correspondence  which  was  full 
and  varied  in  its  interest. 

In  August,  1853,  Milnes  was  in  Ireland.  It  was 
the  year  of  the  Irish  Exhibition,  a  pendant  to  the  Great 
Exhibition  of  1851,  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  the 
Queen  paid  one  of  her  rare  visits  to  Dublin.  Milnes 
stayed  with  some  of  his  old  friends  in  the  country,  and 
was  also  during  a  portion  of  his  visit  the  guest  of  Lord 
St.  Germans,  then  the  Viceroy. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  his   Wife. 

Carton,  Wednesday. 

I  found  on  arriving  here  to-day  a  batch  of  letters — two 
pleasant  ones  from  you,  and  (of  course)  some  unpleasant 
from  others,  which  I  (of  course)  enclose.  I  really  wished 
for  you  in  the  gloomy  hill-sides  and  verdurous  lanes  of 
Wicklow  more  than  in .  the  regal  puppet-shows  of  Dublin. 
Nothing  could  be  kinder  than  the  Moncks,  who  thoroughly  enjoy 
their  pleasant  place.  ...  I  found  here  the  Dowager  Lady 
D.,  whom  I  wanted  to  marry  when  I  was  eight  years  old.  I 
distinctly  remember  proposing  to  her  that  we  should  go  to 
Tobolsk,  in  Siberia,  the  furthest  place  I  had  then  heard  of.  The 
Kildares  are  just  gone  to  take  possession  of  a  place  the  Duke 
has  given  them  ;  so  I  miss  him,  which  I  am  sorry  for.  .  .  . 

Carton,  Saturday. 

I  am  annoyed  that  the  cough  should  still  annoy  you.  It 
ought  really  to  be  well  by  this  time,  or  when  I  come  back  I 
shall  be  taking  you  to  Nice  or  some  such  place,  instead  of  bleak 
Yorkshire.  I  am  sorry  you  have  not  been  with  me  at  this  kind 


484  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGETON. 

hospitable  house,  the  repose  and  ease  of  which  you  would  much 
enjoy.  I  am  only  sure  that  you  are  as  comfortable  where  you 
are.  I  passed  this  morning  at  the  college  at  Maynooth,  which 
is  much  altered  for  the  better  since  I  was  last  here,  the  students 
looking  so  much  cleaner  and  more  academic  than  they  did,  and 
the  new  buildings  in  Pugin's  best  and  simplest  style.  I  was  at 
the  races  yesterday,  and  it  was  as  hot  for  two  hours  as  I  ever 
felt  it  in  Italy,  but  to-day  there  has  been  a  sharp  east  wind. 
.  .  Did  you  read  out  "The  Stones  of  Venice/'  as  I 
advised  ? 

Parson's  Town*  Saturday. 

What  pleasant  letters  of  my  father's  !  His  interest  in  you 
is  quite  a  wholesome  stimulus  to  him.  ...  I  am  very  glad 
I  came  here.  'The  hosts  are  very  amiable,  and  the  telescope 
marvellous  ;  but  though  I  was  glad  to  see  some  of  the  volcanoes 
in  the  moon,  yet  a  dark  moonless  night  is  the  only  one  fit  for 
astronomical  observations,  and  that  we  are  not  likely  to  have 
while  I  am  here.  The  prospects  of  an  autumn  Session,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  are  threatening.  That  incompetent  Clarendon 
seems  to  be  sliding  us  into  a  war  without  honour. 


x  Park,  Monday. 

I  only  got  the  little  envelope  about  you  this  morning.  Wet 
and  cold  indeed  !  I  have  had  a  fire  every  day  in  my  bedroom, 
but  then  comes  the  magical  little  Queen  with  her  luck,  and  to- 
day is  a  real  warm  autumn  day.  We  went  to  Kingstown  at 
seven  this  morning,  and  gossiped  on  a  platform  till  about  ten, 
when  she  landed,  and  we  returned  in  the  same  train  with  her, 
and  went  after  her  in  the  line.  There  could  not  have  been  less 
than  a  million  souls  out  altogether  ;  there  was  no  great  shouting, 
but  much  eager  satisfaction  and  earnest  interest.  After  all 
came  a  letter  from  Lady  Molesworth,  saying,  "  the  hideous  teeth 
of  the  waves,  and  the  frightful  reports  of  the  passengers,  made 
it  impossible  for  them  to  cross."  And  so  they  are  gone  to 

Cornwall. 

*  Lord  Rosse's  house. 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DATS.  485 

Phoenix  Park,  Tuesday. 

You  will  read  in  the  papers  the  account  of  the  Queen's  visit 
to  the  Exhibition  to-day.  The  effect  can  hardly  be  exaggerated ; 
it  was  in  one  sense  finer  than  the  London  one,  in  that  it  was 
all  apprehensible  at  one  glance,  and  the  size  was  not  sufficient 
to  produce  confusion  and  indistinctness.  Her  Majesty  looked 
rather  tired  than  otherwise,  except  when  she  was  speaking  to 
Mr.  Durgan,  the  author  of  the  Exhibition,  when  she  broke  into 
one  of  those  benignant  smiles  that  gain  so  much  from  the  pre- 
ceding sombreness.  The  two  little  princes  followed  her,  hand- 
in-hand,  through  the  building.  I  am  not  asked  to  the  Royal 
dance  to-night,  being  thought,  I  suppose,  owing  to  you,  out  of 
the  pale  of  dancing  men,  but  to  the  concert  to-morrow  with  the 
judges,  bishops,  and  bores.  This  is  too  much  of  a  good  thing, 
for  there  is  a  review  in  the  park  in  the  afternoon  and  a  ball  in 
the  house  here  at  night.  I  have  met  some  quite  old  friends — 

one  the  future  Lady ,  more  handsome  and  charming  than 

when  I  was  half  in  love  with  her  fifteen  years  ago. 


R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarlhy. 

Bawtry,  Oct.  \%th,  1853. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — Your  little  missive  was  very  agreeable  if  it 
merely  showed  you  in  statu  quo,  which,  both  publicly  and  indi- 
vidually, as  one  gets  older,  one  looks  on  with  more  gratification 
than  the  untried  future.  On  the  24th  the  Sultan  goes  to  war 
— poor  old  Mohamed  the  camel-driver  putting  on  his  turban  once 
more.  I  heartily  wish  I  had  never  seen  him  or  anything  of  the 
East,  and  then  I  might  have  formed  the  clear  decisive  intellig- 
ible opinion  on  one  side  or  the  other  which  politicians  and  news- 
papers are  enabled  to  do  by  reason  of  their  ignorance ;  but  I  am 
really  thankful  as  it  is  that  my  opinions  on  the  subject  have  not 
the  slightest  weight  in  the  balance.  I  cannot,  however,  bring 
myself  to  believe  that  the  Christian  populations  who  have  been 
pillaged,  ravished,  impaled,  &c.  &c.,  for  four  centuries  by  those 


486  THE   LIFE    OF  LOUD   HOUGSTON. 

ferocious  tribes,  are  now  going  to  defend  and  support  them 
against  their  fellow-Christians,  however  little  better  these  latter 
may  be.  You  see,  I  would  prefer  the  weak  despotism  of  the 
Porte  to  the  strong  tyranny  of  the  Czar ;  but  that  is  a  piece  of 
occidental  induction,  and  in  this  strife  we  must  remember  that 
all  sides  are  Oriental,  and  have  that  mode  of  thought. 
I  had  a  month's  bachelor  tour  in  Ireland,  which  I  found 
wondrously  improving,  the  emigration  to  America  becoming 
the  ordinary  incident  in  rural  life.  Thus  labour  is  rising  in 
value,  and  even  the  loss  of  the  potato  is  not  regarded  as 
the  loss  of  life.  Annabel  sends  her  best  regards,  and 
begs  me  to  say  she  thinks  her  Amicia  quite  worthy  of  being 
introduced  to  your  Richard.  My  father  has  uncertain  health, 
but  is  just  now  very  well.  ...  I  am  likely  to  see  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  soon,  and  will  not  forget  your  suggestion.  I  have 

already  spoken  of  you  to  him  more  than  once.      I  got 

removed  to  Philadelphia  with  much  trouble,  and  he  is,  of  course, 
miserable.  No  new  books  worth  sending  for  but  Haydon's  Life, 
which  is  as  pathetic  and  strange  as  Rousseau's. 

Your  affectionate 

R.  M.  M. 


The  country  was  now  engrossed  in  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tion, and  we  were  already  practically  committed  to  the 
war  which  was  to  be  fought  out  before  Sebastopol.  It 
is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  tell  here  the  history  of 
the  political  events  of  that  exciting  time,  save  as  they 
may  be  connected  with  Milnes's  own  life.  One  of  the 
most  striking  incidents  of  the  autumn  of  1853  was, 
however,  the  unexpected  resignation  of  Lord  Palmerston 
on  December  15th — a  resignation  which  was  in  force 
for  just  nine  days,  when  the  Minister  resumed  office. 
The  following  letters  to  Milnes,  and  the  extracts  from 


CRIMEAN   WAR    DAYS.  487 

his  letters  to  his  wife,  will  be  found  to  bear  upon  this 
exciting  episode  in  the  political  history  of  the  time. 

Lady  Palmerston  to  R.  M.  M. 

Carlton  Gardens,  Dec.  2nd,  1853. 

DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — I  was  charmed  to  see  your  hand- 
writing again,  for  I  had  heard  nothing-  of  you  for  a  long  time. 
We  shall  certainly  be  at  home  at  Christmas,  and  very  happy  to 
see  you  at  any  time  you  can  come  to  us.  We  are  only  sorry 
that  Mrs.  Milnes  will  not  be  with  you.  London  is  a  horrid 
place  at  this  time  of  year,  and  I  shall  be  glad  to  get  out  of  the 
fogs.  We  have  some  hopes  of  doing  so  after  the  12th.  Here 
the  society  is  small,  and  might  be  pleasant,  if  every  one  had  not 
a  cold,  or  felt  afraid  of  catching  one ;  but  when  Palmerston  has 
ended  all  his  Herculean  labours  by  draining  the  valley  of  the 
Thames,  and  making  all  the  furnaces  and  grates  consume  their 
own  smoke,  then,  indeed,  we  shall  come  to  a  happy  state  of 
things,  and  London  will  be  worth  living  in.  He  is  really 
sanguine  enough  to  hope  to  see  this  day,  and  as  he  generally 
succeeds  in  all  he  undertakes,  I,  too,  live  in  hopes  of  this  result. 
Nobody  looks  very  comfortable  here;  the  Turkish  question 
worries  a  great  many,  and  Reform  others,  and,  I  believe,  both 
might  have  been  avoided.  You  will  say,  how  ?  But  that  I  am 
not  bound  to  answer.  I  only  give  you  my  opinion  as  to  the 
fact;  you  may  value  it  or  not,  just  as  you  please.  Lady 
Pembroke  was  very  unhappy  yesterday  at  hearing  that  her 
brother  Woronzow  was  ill  of  a  bilious  attack.  Poor  fellow  !  he 
is  in  a  sad  anxious  position,  and  no  wonder  he  is  bilious,  at  the 
least.  Brunnow  *  looks  very  unhappy,  too,  and  fears  every  day 
to  be  recalled.  Some  people  expect  the  Emperor  to  have  a  fit 
if  the  Turkish  successes  continue ;  it  must  be  such  a  blow  to  him, 
all  that  has  occurred  hitherto,  and  now  to  see  the  Grand 
Patriarch  ready  to  march  out  with  the  Sultan's  army,  and  even 
to  excommunicate  Nicholas  if  it  were  desirable,  thus  throwing 

*  Baron  Brtmnow,  Russian  Ambassador  in  London. 


488  TEE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

all  his  religious  claims  and  professions  to  the  winds !  There 
never  was  a  man  so  fallen  in  every  way  as  that  Emperor,  for  we 
were  all  prejudiced  in  his  favour,  and  he  had  acted  his  part  so 
well  that  we  might  expect  better  things  of  him.  Even  the 
Times  and  Beeves  have  given  him  up  now.  Palmerston  desires 
his  kindest  regards. 

Believe  me  yours  sincerely, 

E.  PALMERSTON. 

Mr.  D'Israeli  to  R.  P.  Milnes. 

Grosvenor  Gate,  Dec.  19^,  1853. 

MY  DEAR  SQUIRE, — Your  letter  after  several  journeys  has 
caught  me  here,  passing  through  town.  It  is  a  very  tempting 
invitation,  for  under  your  roof  we  are  sure  to  be  happy ;  but, 
alas !  in  this  instance  we  are  so  circumstanced  that  we  are 
bound  to  forego  the  gratification.  I  believe  Lord  W.  [West- 
moreland] to  be  quite  guiltless,  and  that  the  Cabinet  are  the 
distinguished  authors  of  the  Vienna  Note.  The  article  [leading] 
in  the  Morning  Post  to-day  is  from  Lord  Palmerston's  own  hand. 
You  may  rely  on  this  ;  he  is  furious  that  his  resignation  should 
be  solely  or  even  mainly  placed  upon  Parliamentary  Reform. 
He  has  resigned  on  the  Liberal  grounds  of  opposition  to 
"  antiquated  imbecility/' 

My  wife  sends  you  her  love.  Ever  yours, 
D. 

Lady  Palmerston  to  R.  M.  M. 

Carlton  Gardens,  Dec.  ZZnd,  1853. 

DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — I  am  afraid  there  is  no  chance  of  our 
being  at  Broadlands  Saturday,  so  I  write  to  say  that  on  Monday 
I  think  we  shall  be  there,  or  on  Tuesday  certainly.  Would 
this  suit  you  as  well  as  the  earlier  day  ?  .  We 

have  been  kept  here  in  uncertainty  from  day  to  day,  and  now 
great  efforts  are  making  to  try  and  get  Palmerston  to  withdraw 


CHIME  AN    WAR    DAYS.  489 

his  resignation.  I  know  not  whether  there  is  a  possibility  of 
accommodation.  The  manner  in  which  Palmerston' s  resignation 
has  been  received  is  most  flattering.  The  despair  of  the  Whigs 
and  friends  of  the  Government,  even  Radicals  and  Reformers 
(the  fact  is,  nobody  wants  Reform) ;  none  pleased  but  the  Tory 
party,  and  those  most  exulting. 

Yours  very  truly, 

E.  PALMERSTON. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Wife. 

AtJienceum,  Friday. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  these  motions  in  the  House 
may  end  in  my  losing  my  visit  to  Broadlands  altogether. 
After  the  Cabinet  yesterday  they  telegraphed  to  H.  Fitzroy 
at  Brighton,  and  he  has  just  been  with  Palmerston  to  offer 
terms  of  accommodation.  Palmerston  does  not  seem  very  hope- 
ful of  a  good  result,  but  remains  in  town  in  aid  of  the  Ministers. 

During  the  month  in  which  this  political  crisis 
was  in  progress  Milnes  was  making  a  round  of  visits 
to .  various  country  houses,  including  the  Grange,  and 
terminating  with  Broadlands. 

Extracts  from  letters  to  Ms  Wife. 

The  Grange,  Saturday,  Dec.,  1853. 

I  find  here  a  houseful,  contrary  to  my  expectations.  The 
H.  Taylors  with  all  their  children,  the  Brookfields  with  their 
pretty  little  girl,  Bear  Ellice,  Giant  Higgins,  Venables,  Clough, 
Senior,  Kinglake,  a  young  Lascelles,  Geraldine  Mildmay, 
Humphrey  ditto,  and  one  or  two  others.  I  have  the  room  on 
the  ground  floor  I  inherited  from  Charles  Buller,  and  where  I 
lay  with  my  broken  arm.  My  lady  looks  very  well  and  in 
capital  spirits,  but  does  not  assist  at  dinner.  The  children  have 
a  tree  to-night ;  and  there  is  talk  of  a  charade  to  exhibit  the 
Rev.  Brookfield.  He,  Taylor,  and  I,  read  Hamlet  this  morning 


490  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGH  TON. 

to  the  ladies.  T/s  Hamlet  was  very  unlike  Denmark's,  and  very 
like  H.  Taylor.  I  go  to  Embly"*  on  Monday  for  one  night;  that 
is  as  much  as  I  know.  Venables  approves  Parkyns's  book,t 
calling  it  the  most  successful  attempt  of  a  man  to  reduce  himself 
to  the  savage  state  on  record. 

The  Grange,  Sunday. 

Nothing  to  tell  you  but  that  I  shall  stay  at  Embly  till  I  go 
to  Broadlands;  so  write  there.  .  .  .  Lord  Radstock  was  the 
chief  theologian  who  condemned  Maurice  in  the  King's  College 
Council.  The  stridulent  Senior  has  been  showing  us  his  review 
of  Thackeray  in  the  coming  Edinburgh,  and  wretched  it  is.  All 
is  going  on  well  about  Palmy  and  the  Government,  and  I  hope  it 
may  be  settled  by  to-morrow.  The  children  had  a  grand  tea 
last  night,  and  we  had  some  charades  afterwards,  in  the  hall, 
where  my  lady  would  not  venture  to  see  it.  Fancy  my  wife 
taking  care  of  herself  in  that  way ! 

Embly,  Monday. 

We  left  A.  in  bed,  and  unable  to  go  to  Bowood ;  she  had 
(for  once)  certainly  not  taken  care  of  herself,  sitting  up  and 
talking  till  she  was  quite  in  a  fever.  Nobody  much  here  except 
Clough  J  and  his  fancee,  a  clever-looking  girl,  and  our  Dresden 
friends  the  Noels.  ...  Is  not  the  Times  of  to-day  delight- 
ful? The  ingenious  connection  between  Pam's  return  and  a 
more  decided  action  in  foreign  affairs,  without  even  saying 
that  he  is  or  will  be  the  cause  of  a  change  of  policy.  Did  you 
ever  hear  of  the  Birmingham  school  of  gentlemen,  mad  on  the 
currency  question  ?  The  papers  you  sent  are  a  specimen.  It  is 
very  curious,  but  that  doctrine  of  a  fixed  measure  of  value  seems 
capable  of  quite  disordering  the  minds  of  men  who  adopt  it. 

Embly,  Tuesday. 

I  go  to  Broadlands  to-morrow;  they  arrive  there  to-day. 
Lady  P.  writes :  "  Every  event  in  which  P.  is  concerned  ends  in 

*  The  house  of  Mr.  Nightingale,  father  of  Florence  Nightingale. 

f  Mr.  Mansfield  Parkyns  the  traveller. 

J  Arthur  Hugh  Clough,  author  of  "  A  Long  Vacation  Pastoral,"  &c. 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DAYS.  491 

his  standing  higher  than  he  did  before."  There  is  a  fine  deluded 
wifie  for  you,  though  I  think  she  is  right  for  this  once. 

dough's  Amy  has  something  of about  her,  both  in  person 

and  manner,  and  is  evidently  a  woman  of  much  worth.  Clough 
himself  in  great  favour  here.  Do  you  remember  my  bringing 
them  together  at  our  house  ?  We  have  been  reading  poetry  and 
talking  science  all  this  snowy  day,  pleasant  enough.  They  talk 
quite  easily  about  Florence  [Nightingale],  but  her  position  does 
not  seem  very  suitable.  I  wish  we  could  put  her  at  the  head  of 
a  juvenile  reformatory ;  that  would  suit  her  much  better.  Lord 
Pam  has  just  given  £:25,000  for  an  estate  joining  on  to  his  own, 
with  a  good  house  on  it,  for  which  he  wants  a  tenant.  Nightin-' 
gale  says,  "  and  he  has  paid  for  it." 

Broadlands,*  Thursday. 

I  send  you  a  paper  with  the  address  to  Maurice,  which  keep. 
Now  that  P.  has  returned  to  his  disconsolate  friends,  all  is 
forgiven  and  forgotten,  and  they  are  both  in  capital  spirits.  He 
got  a  Russian  letter  from  St.  Petersburg  this  morning,  which 
ends  :  "  France  and  England  may  become  Turks  if  they  please, 
our  three-edged  bayonet  can  destroy  three  Powers ;  in  vain  they 
attempt  to  shake  the  Russian  empire,  for  it  is  with  Christ  and 
for  Christ."  We  have  General  B.  here,  who  is  factotum  of  the 
Court,  and  who  has  lots  of  gossip  which  would  interest  more 
loyal  persons  than  myself  extremely. 

Broadlands,  Monday. 

Lady  P.  is  very  anxious  for  me  to  stay  as  long  as  I  can,  as 
the  Flahaulls  are  coming,  with  nobody  certain  to  meet  them,  so 
I  have  offered  to  stay  till  Friday,  and  shall  come  through  to  you 
that  day.  .  .  .  This  house  here  is  very  cold,  so  different 

from    the    Grange.     Lord ,  who   is   here,  is  full  of   Mrs. 

Dizzy's  visit  to  them.  She  said  at  dinner  that  "she  did 
not  care  the  least  for  looks  in  men,  and  would  as  soon  have 
married  a  black  man  as  not/'  He  apologised  about  a  dish  having 
too  much  onion  in  it ;  she  said,  "  I  prefer  them  raw/'  and  so  on. 

*  The  House  of  Lord  Palmerston. 


492  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Broadlands,  Thursday. 

I  went  to  town  with  Lord  P.  yesterday,  and  returned  in 
the  evening-,  wishing  to  see  some  books  I  should  not  have  time 
for  on  Friday.  It  is  thawing  here,  and,  if  it  goes  on,  will  be 
an  "  almighty  squash  "  to-morrow.  I  was  just  as  well  as  you  in 
the  frost,  a  compliment  you  do  not  pay  me  in  the  heat.  .  .  . 
I  like  Lawrence's  sketch  of  W.  Harcourt  very  much.*  I  don't 
expect  any  explanation  at  the  meeting  of  Parliament ;  there  is 
really  nothing  to  explain.  The  whole  thing,  however,  looks  very 
ticklish,  and  I  doubt  the  Government  keeping  together  long; 
there  is  evidently  no  cordial  goodwill  among  them,  which  is  the 
only  security  for  mutual  promise. 

Milnes  was  still  at  Broadlands  when  the  New  Year 
arrived,  and  he  sent  the  following  greeting  to  his  wife  : — 

1854. 

DEAREST  A , — A  happy  New  Year,  happier  than  the  last, 

and  I  would  wish  it  the  more,  but  for  a  weird  feeling  that  what 
I  wish  very  much  will  not  be. 

Thou  gleaner  of  the  sunny  hours 

Harvested  in  the  home  of  God, 
Gild  me  the  future  summer's  bowers, 

Revive  the  present  ice-bound  sod. 
Thou  gleaner  from  the  darkest  hours 

Of  scattered  good  I  could  not  see, 
Preserve  thy  dear  remedial  powers, 

And  shed  them  as  I  need  o'er  me. 

Your  loving  husband  and  friend, 
> 

RICHARD. 

The  New  Year  opened  gloomily  enough  for  the 
country  at  large,  with  the  delivery  of  an  English  and 
French  ultimatum  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  the 

*  A  portrait  of  "W.  V.  Harcourt,  commissioned  by  Lord  Hough  ton, 
and  BOW  at  Frystou. 


CRIMEAN   WAR   DAYS.  493 

despatch  of  our  armies  to  the  East.  From  this  time 
forward,  to  the  conclusion  of  peace  in  1856,  the 
thoughts  of  the  English  people  were  almost  exclusively 
centred  upon  the  struggle  in  the  Crimea,  and  the 
terrible  sufferings  of  our  troops,  owing  to  the  complete 
breakdown  of  a  system  which,  during  forty  years  of 
peace,  had  been  allowed  to  fall  into  decay.  Milnes  had, 
of  course,  the  deep  interest  of  a  politician  and  a  patriot 
in  the  events  connected  with  the  Crimean  war.  He 
had,  too,  that  personal  interest  in  them  which  was  felt 
by  so  many  members  of  English  society  who  had  friends 
and  relatives  serving  before  Sebastopol,  whilst  by-and- 
by  a  new  interest  sprang  up  in  his  breast  in  connec- 
tion with  the  expedition  of  Miss  Nightingale.  I  have 
already  said  something  of  Milnes's  feelings  of  devotion 
to  that  heroic  woman.  It  was  not  a  thing  of  yesterday. 
Long  before  the  world  had  heard  her  name,  he  had 
recognised  in  her  the  presence  of  those  great  qualities 
which  revealed  themselves  so  conspicuously  in  the 
storm  and  stress  of  the  Crimean  days,  and  he  enter- 
tained for  her  the  truest  affection,  mingled  with  an 
admiration  in  which  there  was  no  trace  of  that  cynicism 
with  which  his  friends  generally  credited  him.  It  was 
inevitable  that  when  Miss  Nightingale  began  to  play  so 
prominent  a  part  in  the  events  of  that  period,  Milnes 
should  throw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  her  service, 
and  do  whatever  lay  within  his  power  in  order  to 
lighten  her  task  and  strengthen  her  hands  in  the 
movement,  the  startling  novelty  of  which  caused  many 
timid  souls  to  regard  it  with  disfavour. 


494  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

Most  of  the  letters  of  1854,  whether  written  by 
Milnes  or  to  him,  have  reference  to  the  war,  and  to  the 
terrible  losses  of  our  troops  ;  but  a  few — more  particu- 
larly in  the  earlier  part  of  the  year — deal  with  other  and 
more  general  subjects.  The  scheme  for  the  reform  of 
the  Civil  Service  by  the  introduction  of  competitive 
examinations  as  a  means  of  admission  of  candidates  had 
been  brought  before  the  House  of  Commons,  and  had 
excited  the  warm  interest  of  Carlyle  among  others. 

T.  Carlyle  to  E.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  March  1st,  1854. 

DEAR  MILNES, — I  wish  you  would  tell  me  something-  definite 
about  that  grand  proposal  of  manning-  the  Civil  Service  by 
persons  chosen  according-  to  their  merit ;  or,  if  you  know  little 
or  nothing-  about  it,  will  you  (for  my  sake  and  your  own)  make 
some  precise  inquiries  in  the  proper  quarter,  and  pause  again  in 
your  riding  some  day  soon  to  tell  me  how  it  stands  with  that 
matter?  I  really  am  much  interested  about  it,  and  can  find 
nobody  to  give  me  information  that  will  amount  to  anything. 
Certainly,  there  never  was  in  my  time  such  a  "  reform  "  set  on 
foot  as  this  same  might  be — a  thing-  worth  all  other  "  reforms  " 
put  together,  and,  indeed,  practically  inclusive  of  all  (for  there 
is  no  other  wanted  or  even  conceivable,  according  to  my  notions) ; 
and  I  confess  I  would  not  exchang-e  the  right  attempt  at  this  for 
all  the  ballot-boxes  or  want  of  ballot-boxes  in  the  world,  which 
latter  entities  (with  their  franchises,  beer  barrels,  husting-s, 
oratory,  &c.  &c.)  have,  after  long  sinking,  quite  reached  zero 
many  years  ago  with  me.  I  can  foresee  endless  difficulties  in 
the  execution  of  such  an  attempt,  but  the  attempt  is  great, 
salutary,  and,  I  believe,  indispensable.  Your  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  or  whoever  it  is  that  has  charge  of  it,  must  in 
no  wise  abandon  it  for  difficulties;  let  him  persist,  in  Heaven's 


CRIMEAN   WAR   DAYS.  495 

name  and  England's.  Gradually  all  good  citizens — all  wise  men 
— will  rally  to  him,  and  he  will  have  begun  a  new  epoch  in 
English  history,  and  done  a  service  required  by  God  and  man. 
In  short,  come  to  me  again  soon,  and  give  your  wisest  account 
of  all  that,  not  to  speak  of  other  things.  I  am  here  daily  till 

3.30  p.m. 

Yours  ever, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  some,  Milnes  himself  was 
not  altogether  in  favour  of  the  reform  which  excited  the 
enthusiastic  approbation  of  Carlyle.  He  was  not  able 
to  convince  himself  that  a  man's  "  merit  "  was  to  be 
best  ascertained  by  testing  his  proficiency  in  cramming ; 
whilst  he  had  a  wholesome  dread  of  a  possible  time  in 
which  the  youth  of  this  country  might  look  forward  to 
a  Government  office  as  the  highest  aim  of  their  lives, 
believing  that  such  a  state  of  things  would  be  injurious 
to  our  national  independence  and  our  national  spirit. 
Speaking  in  the  House  when  the  question  of  Civil 
Service  examinations  had  come  before  Parliament  in  a 
practical  form,  he  declared  that  the  result  of  such  a 
system  of  competition  would  be  that  the  country  would 
secure  only  the  intellectual  attainments  of  a  certain 
class  of  society,  and  that  the  competition  would  be 
determined  by  the  means  which  the  candidates  respec- 
tively possessed  of  getting  crammed.  "  It  will  become 
simply  a  question  of  money;  the  poor  man  will  be 
utterly  excluded  from  the  contest,  whatever  his  talents 
or  efficiency,  and  success  will  be  attained  by  more  or  less 
mechanical  means ;  that  is  to  say,  the  men  who  get 
themselves  crammed  by  those  persons  who  are  known  as 


496  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

coaches  will  almost  invariably  win."  The  country  has 
now  had  a  sufficiently  long  experience  of  the  system 
which  Carlyle  hailed  with  so  much  delight,  and  against 
which  Milnes  inveighed,  to  be  able  to  come  to  its  own 
conclusion  as  to  its  merits  and  its  drawbacks.  That 
conclusion  probably  is  that  neither  the  hopes  of  the 
friends  nor  the  fears  of  the  enemies  of  the  new  system 
have  been  or  are  likely  to  be  realised  under  it. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  Ms  Wife,  1854. 

I  went  to  Lady  John's  [Russell's]  for  half  an  hour  last 
night,  she  and  the  young  ladies  all  coughing  so  badly  they  could 
hardly  speak.  The  Duke  of  Argyll,  an  Italian,  and  an  Elliot  all 

the  party.      The  cast    their   gloomy    shadow    over    the 

Ellesmere  dance.  The  joke  of  the  evening-  was  that  Sir 
Frederick  Thesiger  had  said  to  some  one  who  complained  of 
Lord  Campbell  talking  such  bad  French  that  he  murdered 
the  language,  "  No/'  said  Thesiger,  "  he  doesn't  kill,  he  only 
'  Scotches '  it." 

House  of  Commons. 

DEAREST  A , — I  will  look  over  the  list  of  the  orphan  sub- 
scribers with  you  next  week,  and  write ;  there  is  no  use  talking 
to  people  of  such  things.  The  private  letters  from  the  Crimea 
yesterday  were  of  the  most  melancholy  character,  the  men  dying 
bv  scores  of  cold  and  disease.  S.  Herbert  says  the  winter  stores 

J  •/ 

have  partially  arrived,  and  James  Smith,  young  Glyn,  and  some 
one  else  started  last  night  with  the  Crimean  Fund.  Everything 
is  to  be  sold  at  a  low  price,  and  the  money  spent  in  fuel.  If 
this  factious  opposition  goes  on,  I  cannot  be  with  you  till 
Saturday.  The  Government  are  anxious  in  all  ways  to  keep 

me. 

Drayton,  Friday. 

I  see  they  will  be  annoyed  if  I  go  away  to-morrow,  as  the 
main  party  comes  that  day.  At  present  there  are  only  the 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DATS.  497 

Villiers,  Admiral  Rous,  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  The 
Duke  and  Sir  Robert  keep  up  a  running  fire  of  banter,  accusing 
one  another  reciprocally  of  being  the  servant  of  the  Times  and 
the  valet  of  the  Prince.  Have  you  read  the  articles  on  Florence 
Nightingale  in  the  Chronicle  of  to-day,  and  in  the  French  paper 
translated  in  the  Times  of  yesterday  ?  They  have  som°  very 
comical  lines  on  her  in  Punch,  and  an  ideal  portrait,  something 
like  the  reality. 

Drayton,  Saturday  (?  Dec.,  1854). 

It  is  as  well  that  I  am  not  coming  to  you  to-day,  as  I  am 
nursing  an  influenza  which  came  on  the  evening  I  got  here,  and 
which,  under  the  homoeopathic  care  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
is  fast  getting  better.  It  was  not  improved  by  a  drive  in  an 
open  carriage  and  four  yesterday  to  Lichtield  to  see  the  cathedral. 
The  news  to-day  is  very  sad,  and  next  week  will  be  as  sorrowful 
as  that  after  Alma,  without  the  victory.  I  wish  you  would  ask 
Hungerford  [Lord  Crewe]  to  let  you  take  Hawthorne*  to  see 
Crewe  next  Saturday.  I  should  like  him  to  see  it,  though  he 
may  not  immortalise  it,  like  Bracebridge  Hall.  Peel  is  doing  a 
great  deal  here,  laying  out  Italian  terraces,  &c. ;  a  batch  of  vases 
from  Carrara  arrived  yesterday,  and  an  araucaria  from  Elvaston, 
for  which  he  gave  £20  ;  but  nothing  can  make  the  place  worthy 

of  the  house. 

Wars  ley,  Friday. 

Hardly  anybody  here  but  ourselves,  and  those  selves  very 
pleasant.  .  .  .  Poor  Lord  F.  Gower !  f  A  sad  translation, 
indeed,  from  the  green  velvet  of  Stafford  House  to  the  wretched 
transport  where  he  lay  dying  for  twenty  days  without  any  one 
who  even  knew  his  name  near  him.  When  Lord  W.  Paulet 
found  him  out  he  was  insensible.  A  telegraph  from  Windsor 
came  here  last  night  to  ask  how  and  where  he  died.  This  place 
has  gained  much  by  the  terraces  made  since  you  were  here.  It 
now  stands  quite  on  a  pedestal,  proportionate  though  high. 

*  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  was  now  actiug  as  American  Consul  at  Liver- 
pool. 

f  Son  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  killed  in  the  Crimea. 


498  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGH  TON. 

Worsley,  Saturday. 

The  Duchess's  poor  boy  was  almost  insensible  when  he  got 
on  board  the  man-of-war;  he  only  wished  to  write  to  her,  but  he 
could  not  hold  the  pen,  so  he  went  away  in  silence.  I  was 
telling  Lady  E.  yesterday  how  much  you  read  to  me,  and  she 
said,  "  She  has  such  a  delightful  voice — the  Greville  voice." 

has  written  a  most  empty  volume.     Lady  E.  said  to  the 

company,  "  Is  Lord '"s  book  vacant  ?  "     "  Yes,"  said  I,  "  I 

am  sorry  to  say  it  is." 

R.  M.  M.  to  the  Chevalier  Bunsen. 

The  Hall,  Bawtry,  Oct.  26M,  1854. 

MY  DEAR  CHEVALIER  BUNSEN, — I  want  to  know  something 
of  George's  existence,  of  General  Radovvitz's,  and  of  your  own  ; 
and  now  that  the  diplomatic  neutrality  of  Germany  gives  you 
nothing  to  do,  you  cannot  perform  a  more  amiable  act  than 
giving  me  a  little  information  on  these  points.  George  should 
really  let  us  know  something  about  him,  for  it  is  now  above  a 
year  since  I  have  seen  his  handwriting,  and  Lady  Ashburton  is 
no  better  off.  The  papers  make  General  Radowiiz  very  ill :  is 
it  so  ?  It  must  gratify  him  very  considerably  to  see  the  moral 
quagmire  into  which  his  friend  the  Czar  has  plunged  himself. 
Omar  Pasha  had  a  fine  day  yesterday  for  crossing  the  Danube. 
For  my  own  part,  I  like  neither  of  the  combatants,  though  I 
prefer  a  feeble  and  superannuated  despotism  as  less  noxious  to 
mankind  than  one  young  and  vigorous,  and  assisted  by  the 
appliances  of  modern  intelligence.  I  have  been  spending  six 
weeks  in  Ireland,  which  appears  singularly  prosperous.  Cullen's 
ultramontanism  is  doing  good  in  denationalising  the  priesthood, 
and  the  education  of  the  people  is  making  a  new  spring,  relieved 
from  the  incubus  of  the  dogmatical  and  crotchety  Archbishop 
Whately.  What  is  the  truth  of  the  rumours  of  Maurice's 
expulsion  from  his  professorship  ? 

With  all  regards  to  your  family  circle, 

I  remain  yours  very  truly, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DAYS.  499 

Mrs.  Procter  to  Mrs.  Milnes. 

MY  DEA.E  MRS.  MILNES, — It  gave  me  real  pleasure  to  hear 
such  good  news  of  you  all.  .  .  .  For  anything  else,  we 
might  as  well  be  in  the  Crimea ;  no  one  speaks  or  thinks  of 
anything  but  the  war.  We  are  kept  in  a  continual  state  of 
excitement  by  second  editions  and  third  editions  of  the  various 
newspapers.  I  have  so  many  friends  whose  sons  and  nephews 
are  in  the  East  that  I  only  exchange  one  sad  face  for  another. 
I  should  congratulate  Lord  Clanricarde  upon  his  son  being  a 
prisoner :  he  is  safe  ;  and,  judging  by  the  courtesy  the  Emperor 
showed  a  naval  lieutenant,  he  will  be  received  with  real  honours. 
I  am  very  anxious  about  Mr.  Kinglake,  who  is  at  Malta  in  fever, 
the  fruits  of  excitement,  fatigue,  and  bad  living.  We  are  all 
well — Adelaide  better  than  I  have  known  her  for  some  years. 
Thackeray  is  very  poorly  indeed — I  think,  sadly  out  of  spirits. 
He  has  now  gone  to  Paris,  being  so  restless  that  he  is  no  sooner 
in  one  place  than  he  wants  to  be  in  another.  I  have  been  staying 
with  Mrs.  Grote,  at  Burnham,  for  three  days.  How  we  did  talk! 
From  ten  in  the  morning  until  twelve  at  night  we  never  ceased.  I 
was  so  excited  by  her  conversation  that  I  could  not  sleep.  We 
spoke  of  you  and  your  husband,  and  congratulated  him  and  our- 
selves upon  his  marriage.  It  is  not  always,  permit  me  to  say,  that 
two  old  women — such  adorers  of  a  man — can  see  what  is  charm- 
ing in  his  wife.  I  am  just  going  to  see  Mrs.  Fanny  Kemble, 
who  has  had  great  fatigue  and  sorrow,  nursing  her  poor  father, 
whose  sufferings  were  very  great  for  twelve  hours  before  his 
death. 

Mr.  Kinglake,  to  whom  reference  is  made  above,  had 
been  in  the  Crimea,  making  those  observations  which 
have  since  been  turned  to  such  good  account  in  his 
history  of  the  war.  He  had  also  contributed  something 
— apparently  not  much — to  the  account  of  the  battle  of 
Alma  published  in  the  Times.  The  following  letter 
from  the  editor  of  that  journal  gives  an  interesting 


500  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

account  of  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  many  feats  in 
journalism  which  were  subsequently  performed  by  "  the 
pen  of  the  war,"  and  may,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  be  quoted 
here  without  any  breach  of  etiquette. 

Mr.  Delane  to  R.  M.  M. 

Serjeants'  Inn,  Oct.  ZZrd,  1854. 

DEAR  Mil.  MILNES, — I  enclose  all  that  Eothen  wrote  of  the 
battle  of  the  Alma,  a  characteristic  bit,  but  something  widely 
different  from  the  complete  and  artistic  account  which  you  so 
justly  admire.  When  I  add  that  the  letter  was  written  on  the 
actual  field  of  battle,  among  dead  and  wounded  men,  the  writer 
lying  on  the  ground  in  the  scorching  sun,  and  writing  in  pencil 
on  his  hat,  for  want  of  a  table,  and  that  he  had  just  had  his  horse 
shot  under  him,  you  will,  I  hope,  admit  and  maintain  that  his 
was  the  most  extraordinary  literary  feat  on  record.  You  will 
have  seen  that  we  have  had  a  most  responsible  arid  unwelcome 
duty  forced  on  us  by  the  public  charity.  I  am  sending  out  Mr. 
Macdonald  (whom  you  may,  perhaps,  have  seen  at  the  Great  Exhi- 
bition and  elsewhere)  to  act  as  treasurer  of  the  Fund  [the  Times 
Patriotic  Fund] ,  and  should  be  very  glad  if  you  would  give  him  an 
introduction  to  Miss  Nightingale.  The  absence  of  medical  stores 
and  comforts,  which  was  deplorable  before  I  left,  is  at  last 
explained.  They  had  all  been  sent  to  Varna,  while  the  sick  and 
wounded  were  sent  to  Constantinople.  This  little  bureaucratic 
blunder  has  cost  at  least  500  lives,  but  the  Government  which 
denied  that  there  was  any  want  of  stores  will  now,  of  course, 
maintain  that  it  was  in  pursuance  of  a  wise  and  far-seeing  policy 
that  the  medicines  and  the  sick,  the  lint  and  the  wounded,  were 
kept  300  miles  apart.  Baird  writes  me  to-day  that  he  and 
Kinglake  were  well  and  prosperous  at  Balaklava  on  the  8th,  and 
that  K.  would  start  on  his  homeward  journey  on  the  18th. 

Believe  me 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

JOHN  T.  DELANE. 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DAYS.  501 

The  news  from  the  Crimea  became  worse  and  worse 
as  time  passed,  and  popular  feeling  at  home  rose  to  a 
point  at  which  it  was  impossible  for  Parliament  or 
Ministers  to  stand  any  longer  against  it.  Lord  John 
Russell's  resignation  as  Lord  President  on  the  21st  of 
January  preceded  only  by  a  couple  of  days  the  defeat 
of  the  Ministry  as  a  whole  on  Mr.  Roebuck's  Motion  of 
Censure.  Lord  Aberdeen  went  out  of  office,  and  in 
February  Lord  Palmerston  undertook  to  form  a 
Ministry. 

R.  M.  M.  to  Mr.  Gladstone. 

16,  Upper  Brook  St.,  Feb.  \1thy  1855. 

MY  DEAR  GLADSTONE,  —  When  we  were  interrupted  the 
other  evening1,  I  was  desirous  to  urge  on  you,  not  only  for 
Palmerston's  sake,  but  for  that  of  the  country,  the  all-importance 
of  rendering  this  new  coalition  of  political  parties  as  real  as 
possible.  We  have  now,  at  any  rate,  a  Minister  whom  people 
know,  instead  of  one  who  was  as  invisible  as  Lord  Raglan ;  and 
this,  so  far,  is  an  advantage  :  but  it  will  go  but  small  way  towards 
a  vigorous  united  action  if  there  are  still  to  be  rival  coteries  at 
the  Carlton  and  at  Brooks's ;  if  the  subordinate  officials  of  one 
set  are  too  free  in  their  abuse  of  the  Ministers  of  the  other ;  if 
the  friends  of  each  section  are  to  meet  nowhere  but  in  Lady 
Palmerston's  drawing-room.  My  own  isolation  in  political  life 
would  of  itself  make  me  estimate  the  worth  of  such  a  close 
personal  connection  as  you  and  your  friends  have  enjoyed ;  but 
I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  that  such  associations  are  not 
without  their  disadvantages  and  dangers.  The  terrors  and 
hatreds  of  society  have  always  been  directed  against  com- 
binations of  men  rather  than  against  individuals,  and  the  more 
so  when  the  bonds  that  attach  those  combinations  are  rather 
personal  than  political.  If  therefore  you  and  yours  are  to  remain 
a  separate  party 'in  the  Government  and  in  society,  I  believe 


502  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   HOUGHTON. 

you  will  render  any  effective  administration  of  affairs  impossible. 
You  have  talents  enough  to  embarrass  and  damage  any  other 
party,  and  you  have  not  sufficient  following  to  make  a  party  of 
yourselves.  It  was  the  Girondins,  the  best  and  wisest  statesmen 
of  France,  who  destroyed  the  Republic  and  themselves. 

I  remain  yours  very  truly, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 

P.S. — I  have  this  to-day  from  the  Crimea  from  an  officer 
in  the  33rd  : — "  Every  word  in  the  Tim.es  is  true  ;  our  strongest 
company  has  thirteen  men  fit  for  duty  ;  my  company  has  three ; 
one  company  has  one  officer,  one  drummer,  and  one  soldier  fit 
for  duty.  The  Light  Company  has  eight,  and  the  Grenadiers 
three.  We  have  at  this  moment  sixty-seven  bodies  lying  out- 
side my  tent." 

To  this  very  frank  letter — which  was,  in  fact,  an 
appeal  to  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  other  Peelites  definitely 
to  throw  in  their  lot  with  the  Liberal  party  as  repre- 
sented and  led  by  Lord  Palmerston — Mr.  Gladstone 
replied  at  once. 

He  told  Milnes  that  Lord  Aberdeen's  friends  could 
not  "  remain  a  separate  party  in  the  Government,  if  it 
were  only  for  the  reason  that  they  never  were  made  a 
party.  In  point  of  fact  there  never  was  a  more  com- 
plete success  than  that  of  the  late  Cabinet  in  its  internal 
relations  generally;"  and  its  harmony  had  been  as 
great  as  that  of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Cabinet,  which  was 
the  only  other  of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  had  personal 
experience.  "  Upon  no  single  occasion  did  it  ever  happen 
during  two  far  from  common  years  that  in  any  difference 
of  opinion  it  could  be  traced  who  was  Whig  and  who 
was  not  Whig."  Mr.  Gladstone  could-  not,  in  these 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DAYS.  503 

circumstances,  recognise  the  justice  of  Milnes's  appre- 
hensions. 

On  the  22nd  of  February  Milnes's  fears,  the  reality 
of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  was  unable  to  recognise,  were 
to  a  large  extent  confirmed  by  the  resignation  of  Sir 
James  Graham,  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert,  Mr.  Cardwell, 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  himself.  It  should  be  said,  however, 
six  or  eight  Peelites  remained  in  the  Ministry,  and  that 
those  who  resigned  did  so  against  the  wishes  of  Lord 
Aberdeen  and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle. 

R.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCarthy. 

Feb.  23rd,  1855. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — Here  we  are  turning  Ministers  in  and  out ; 
at  this  moment  the  atmosphere  is  a  little  clearer ;  the  chief 
Peelites  have  left  the  Government,  and  taken  their  seats  in  the 
House  of  Commons  behind  Cobden  and  Bright.  It  is  the  best 
thing  they  could  do.  Roebuck's  Committee  will  not  come  to 
much,  but  it  will  give  the  opportunity  to  the  chief  accused  to 
state  the  facts  of  their  case,  and  we  shall  see  clearer  where  the 
main  cause  of  the  misfortune  lies.  I  have  always  made  the 
most  of  Palmerston's  capabilities,  and  now,  I  fear,  I  have  over- 
rated them,  especially  as  he  is  much  aged  of  late,  though  he 
struggles  against  time  with  the  energy  of  a  hero.  As  yet  the 
accounts  from  the  Crimea  offer  no  mitigation  of  horror ;  and  if 
the  weather  there  has  any  analogy  with  that  here,  the  catastrophe 
must  be  complete.  The  passion  of  the  country  is  rising,  and  is 
likely  to  make  vent  in  many  useless  distracted  ways.  The 
internal  distress  is  also  great,  and  trade  generally  declining ;  so 
that  the  public  prospects  are  not  such  as  to  make  any  man 
desire  too  great  public  responsibility. 

Yours  affectionately, 

RICHARD  M.  MILNES. 


504  THE   LIFE   OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

The  Ministerial  crisis  had  a  special  interest  for 
Milnes,  as  it  was  the  occasion  of  his  receiving  from 
Lord  Palmerston  the  offer  of  a  post  in  the  Government, 
a  Lordship  of  the  Treasury.  Ten  years  before  such 
an  offer  would  have  been  gladly  accepted ;  but  the 
chance  of  work  in  the  ranks  of  the  Ministry  had  offered 
itself  too  late.  His  tastes  and  his  ambitions  were 
changed,  and  he  now  felt  no  inclination  to  enter  the 
service  of  his  country  by  the  humble  door  of  a 
Lordship  of  the  Treasury.  Other  fields  of  useful- 
ness and  other  forms  of  enjoyment  were  open  to 
him,  and  he  preferred  to  continue  the  life  of  inde- 
pendent action  to  which  he  had  so  long  been 
accustomed. 

.The  story  of  the  Ministerial  crisis,  and  of  Milnes's 
refusal  of  the  post  offered  to  him  by  Lord  Palmerston, 
is  briefly  indicated  in  his  letters  to  his  wife  and  his 
father. 

Aihenaum,  Tuesday,  January,  1855. 

I  have  not  yet  seen  enough  to  judge  what  the  French  call 
the  situation.  I  think  the  Government  would  be  glad  to  go  out 
if  they  could  do  so  with  honour ;  something  like  the  position  in 
the  Crimea.  Stafford  *  looks  well,  and  is  quite  happy  at  the  way 
people  have  received  him.  I  breakfast  with  him  to-morrow,  and 
Thirlwall  with  me  on  Saturday.  He  said  Thirlwall  says  he  can 
find  no  one  fault  with  the  conduct  of  the  war;  he  thinks  every- 
body has  done  everything  that  circumstances  permitted.  I  tell 
him  that  it  is  lucky  for  his  character  that  the  day  of  translations 
of  historians  is  over. 

•  His  old  friend  Augustus  Stafford  O'Brien,  who  had  some  time 
previously  dropped  the  name  of  O'Brien,  and  who  had  just  returned  from 
a  visit  to  the  Crimea. 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DATS.  505 

Upper  Brook  St.,  Friday. 

I  write  this  in  the  morning,  and  will  write  to  my  father  from 
the  House  if  there  is  anything  of  interest.  Lord  John's  with- 
drawal *  was  as  much  a  surprise  as  a  harlequin  going  through  a 
window.  If  it  means  that  he  wishes  to  be  free  at  the  break-up, 
and  therefore  all  ready  to  head  a  new  Government,  I  do  not 
think  it  will  succeed.  I  hope  Stafford  will  speak  to-night  or 
Monday;  he  is  only  too  full  of  interesting  matter.  He  says 
Florence  in  the  Hospital  quite  makes  intelligible  to  him  the 
saints  of  the  Middle  Ages.  If  the  soldiers  were  told  that  the 
roof  had  opened,  and  she  had  gone  up  palpably  to  heaven,  they 
would  not  be  the  least  surprised.  They  quite  believe  she  is  in 
several  places  at  once.  Does  not  this  prove  her  to* be  a  Papist  in 
disguise  ?  The  Burns  anniversary  acted  on  me  homceo- 

pathically;  I  went  to  it  with  a  bad  headache,  and  have  none  this 
morning.  Tell  my  father  we  had  four  magnums  of  1841  claret 
on  the  table;  and  when  I  asked  something  about  1851,  nobody 
at  the  table  would  own  they  had  ever  tasted  so  raw  a  vintage. 
There  was  some  capital  speaking  and  singing.  "  Willie  brewed 
a  Peck  o'  Malt"  was  capitally  given  by  Colonel  Burns,  the 
poet's  son. 

Boodle's,  5  o'clock,  Saturday,  January,  1855. 

The  pure  Whigs  are  up ;  Lord  John  has  undertaken  to  form 
a  Government.  The  Queen  has  never  given  Palmy  the  choice, 
though  he  has  been  with  her  this  afternoon.  The  Peelites,  I 
take  it,  will  secede,  and  thus  the  Government  will  return  weaker 
and  more  divided  than  ever.  Galway's  story  about  Lord  Derby 
and  the  Peelites  was  just  the  contrary  to  the  fact.  Lord  D.  offered 
office  to  Gladstone  and  Herbert,  and  they  declined.  Is  not  this 
comical  ?  f  Lady  P.  is  very  much  out  of  sorts,  and  believed  last 

*  Lord  John  Russell  resigned  office  on  January  21st,  two  days  before 
the  defeat  of  the  Government  on  Mr.  Roebuck's  motion. 

f  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Lord  Derby  had  offered  to  Lord  Palmerston 
to  take  him,  Gladstone,  and  Herbert  into  the  Ministry,  and  it  was 
Palmerstou's  refusal  which  caused  the  proposal  to  fall  through. 


506  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUGHTON. 

night  that  it  would  end  in  Lord  Lansdowne;  but  I  suppose  your 
old  friend  had  a  twinge  in  the  night,  which  may  have  changed 
him.  The  Philobiblon  breakfast  was  agreeable — much  smaller 
than  usual,  and  the  better  for  it.  The  Due  d'Aumale  was  in 
good  form,  and  walked  away  through  the  slush  with  a  book 
under  his  arm  like  a  student. 


House  of  Commons,  Tuesday,  January,  1855. 

The  decision  of  the  Cabinet  to-day  is  not  positively  known, 
but  it  is  believed  that  Gladstone  has  agreed  to  refer  the  selection 
of  Roebuck's  Committee  to  the  Committee  of  Selection.  I 
doubt  the  House  accepting  this  compromise.  Lady  P.  told  me 
to-day  that  the  Duchess  of  Cambridge  was  quite  pleased  with 
Mr.  Layard's  not  being  in  the  Government ;  this  is  what  the 
aristocracy  call  "public  opinion/'  My  Quaker  friend  Forster 
was  with  me  this  morning,  saying  the  whole  West  Riding  was 
indignant  with  the  Government,  and  would  not  allow  that  they 
would  be  appeased  by  our  dear  Carlisle's  admission  to  the 
Cabinet. 

House  of  Commons,  February  bth,  1855. 

Palmy  is  going  on  pretty  well  with  his  Government ;  there 
is  a  hitch  with  Gladstone,  who  is  making  difficulties,  but  I  hope 
the  other  Peelites  will  not  follow  him,  except  perhaps  Graham, 
between  whom  and  Palmy  there  is  a  real  personal  dislike.  The 
premiere  is  as  happy  as  Amy  with  a  new  toy,  and  she  really  may 
rejoice  in  thinking  how  fairly  and  honestly  he  has  won  the 
prize. 

Athenaum,  February  Qth,  1855. 

P.'s  difficulties  continue,  Gladstone  resting  much  on  his 
scruples  respecting  the  objects  of  the  war.  I  see  he  fears  that 
he  may  find  himself  some  day  in  Lord  John's  trap,  and  be  com- 
pelled either  to  go  against  his  earnest  opinions,  or  break  up  the 
Government  by  leaving  it.  ...  I  saw  the  Duke  of 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DAYS.  507 

Cambridge  to-day  ;  he  spoke  very  hopefully  about  the  soldiers, 
and  said,  "  You  know,  I  feel  about  them  as  if  they  were  my 
children." 

The  Philobiblon  Society,  to  one  of  the  breakfasts  of 
which  reference  is  made  in  one  of  the  foregoing  letters, 
had  been  established  in  1853  through  the  joint  efforts 
of  M.  Yandeweyer,  then  Minister  of  Belgium  in  London, 
and  Milnes.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  more  par- 
ticularly to  it  in  a  later  chapter.  Here,  it  will  suffice  to 
say  that  the  society,  which  was  limited  in  numbers  and 
exclusive  in  character,  was  strictly  confined  to  genuine 
book-lovers.  The  members  met  each  other  at  breakfast 
at  the  house  of  some  one  of  their  number,  when  the 
host  brought  forth  for  inspection  any  curiosities  in  the 
shape  of  rare  books  or  manuscripts  which  might  have 
come  into  his  possession,  and  there  was  a  real  conver- 
sazione on  the  treasure,  and  any  kindred  topics  sug- 
gested by  it.  Among  the  members  of  the  Philobiblon 
Society  who  are  mentioned  most  frequently  in  Milnes's 
correspondence  are  the  Due  d'Aumale,  M.  J.  Higgins 
(the  well-known  "  Jacob  Omnium "  of  the  Times),  and 
Sir  William  Stirling  Maxwell.  Milnes  himself  was, 
throughout  the  whole  period  of  its  existence,  the 
most  active  member  of  the  Society,  and  the  editor  of  its 
Transactions. 

R.  M.  M.  to  his  Father. 

February,  1855. 

MY  DEAREST  FATHER, — After  a  large  amount  of  palaver  about 
his  difficulties,  &c.  &c.,  Palmy  asked  me  to  join  him  in  the 
Treasury.  This  euphuism  of  course  had  no  success,  and,  though 


608  THE    LIFE    OF   LORD    HOUOHTON. 

he  pressed  it  much,  was  civilly  declined.  I  asked  Slater  to 
mention  D.  to  him,  saying  what  a  faithful  supporter  he  was,  and 
so  on,  and  he  promised  to  do  so.  He  has  been  foolish  in  offer- 
ing places  to  men,  and  then  withdrawing-  them.  Layard  was 
distinctly  offered  the  Under-Secretaryship  for  War,  and,  having 
accepted  it,  would  not  be  put  off  with  the  Colonies — Lord  John, 
who  had  hitherto  been  his  great  opponent,  specially  asking  for 
him  ;  but  he  stands  out,  and  will,  I  dare  say,  gain  his  end. 
Palmy  has  just  made  a  good  eulogium  upon  Hume. 

Your  affectionate 

E.  M.  M. 

With  this  episode  may  be  said  to  have  ended 
Milnes's  prospect  of  an  official  career.  He  continued, 
however,  to  give  Lord  Palmerston  an  independent 
support,  whilst  his  personal  friendship  for  that  dis- 
tinguished statesman  was  increased  rather  than  dim- 
inished by  the  events  of  the  year. 

To  his  Wife. 

Broadlands,  March,  1855. 

One  line  to  say  I  came  down  along  with  the  Premier,  who 
talked  all  the  way,  and  said  very  little  indeed,  though  he  was 
witty  enough.  Nobody  here  but  Lady  D.,  who  looks  as  much 

a  widow  and  as  little  like as  you,  with  your  Suttee  notions, 

could  desire.  Palmy  gives  the  All  Souls'  living  to  Mr.  Eardley 
Wilmot,  of  Kenil worth.  This  is  a  secret,  so  is  probably  well 
known.  He  had  hesitated  between  him  and  Thomson,  when  the 
latter  was  named;  so  I  had  nothing  to  say.*  The  Army  is 
to  be  divided  into  two  bodies  to  menager  Sir  C.  Campbell  and 
Eyre,  who  are  to  command  them,  with  Codrington  over  both. 

*  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  appointment  was  given  to  Mr.  Thomson, 
now  Archbishop  of  York. 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DATS.  509 

Through  his  intimacy  with  Miss  Nightingale  and 
her  family  he  naturally  heard  much  direct  news  with 
regard  to  the  work  which  was  heing  done  by  that  lady 
at  Scutari.  Even  now  the  world  can  hardly  fail  to 
take  an  interest  in  the  noble  enterprise  which  opened 
up  a  new  sphere  for  the  energy  and  self-sacrifice  of 
woman. 

One  of  Miss  Nightingale's  nearest  relatives,  writing 
about  January,  1855,  to  Milnes,  says  : — 

Very  good  news  from  Scutari  as  far  as  the  way  in  which  the 
expedition  is  received,  and  the  use  it  is  of.  Mr.  B.  says,  "  In 
one  week  F.  has  gained  the  confidence  of  all ;  the  doctors  do  her 
will,  and  the  Fund  has  poured  its  cornucopia  into  her  lap  :  tin- 
pots,  saucepans,  jars,  basins,  sherry,  combs,  shirts,  socks,  sheets, 
coal,  wooden  spoons,  form  its  jewels.  They  all  say  that  the 
patience  and  endurance  of  the  soldiers  is  something  more 
beautiful  than  one  can  tell,  and  the  manner  in  which  they 
behave  to  the  nurses.  We  had  1,715  sick  and  wounded  in  this 
hospital,  and  650  in  the  other,  of  which  we  have  charge  also, 
when  a  message  came  to  prepare  for  510  wounded  on  our  side 
of  the  hospital.  We  had  but  half  an  hour's  notice  before  they 
began  to  land  them.  Between  1  and  9  o'clock  we  had  the  mat- 
tresses stuffed,  sewn  up,  and  laid  down — alas !  only  on  matting 
on  the  floor — the  men  washed,  put  to  bed,  and  all  their  wounds 
dressed.  The  Turks  carry  these  men  who  are  come  out  to  fight 
for  them  so  -  carelessly  that  they  arrive  in  a  state  of  agony ; 
twenty-four  died  in  the  process.  We  have  now  nearly  four 
miles  of  beds  not  18  inches  apart.  We  have  our  quarters  in 
one  tower,  and  this  fresh  influx  has  been  laid  down  between  us 
and  the  main  guard  in  two  corridors,  with  a  line  of  beds  down 
each  side,  and  just  room  for  one  to  pass  between.  I  can  truly 
say  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here,  even  in  the  midst  of  this 
appalling  horror.  As  I  went  my  last  round  among  the  newly 


510  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

wounded  that  first  night  there  was  not  a  murmur,  not  one 
groan ;  the  strictest  discipline,  the  most  absolute  silence  and 
quiet  prevailed ;  only  the  step  of  the  sentry ;  and  I  heard  one 
man  say,  '  I  was  dreaming  of  my  friends  at  home/  and  another 
said,  '  And  I  was  thinking  of  them.'  These  poor  fellows  bear 
pain  and  mutilation  with  unshrinking  heroism,  and  die  without 
complaint." 

Among  Milnes's  constant  correspondents  few  had 
been  more  faithful  during  many  years  than  Miss 
Martineau.  They  had  exchanged  ideas  upon  many 
questions,  and  had  found  in  their  very  differences  of 
opinion  a  ground  upon  which  to  base  a  firm  and  lasting 
friendship.  Miss  Martineau,  as  the  reader  has  already 
heard,  entertained  a  great  admiration  for  Milnes's 
abilities  as  a  poet,  whilst  she  was  in  the  habit  of  making 
use  of  his  influence  as  a  politician  in  order  to  serve  her 
own  public  and  philanthropic  purposes.  During  the 
spring  of  this  year,  1855,  she  was  very  ill,  and  at  her 
request  Milnes  went  to  Ambleside  to  see  her. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  his  Wife. 

Ambleside,  Good  Friday,  1855. 

....  I  got  here  to  tea,  after  having  met  John  Bright 
in  the  train,  and  having  had  pleasant  talk.  I  found  my  friend 
looking  better  than  I  have  ever  seen  her.  After  some  animated 
conversation  a  fit  came  on,  and  she  was  insensible  some  half- 
hour,  and  after  a  quantity  of  ether  and  opium  revived  and  set 
to  talking  again.  She  says  her  life  began  with  winter,  and  is 
ending  with  spring.  The  ascendency  of  mind  over  matter  is 
really  wonderful  to  witness.  She  may  die  any  moment,  or  live 
many  weeks.  You  see  "  Jane  Eyre  "  is  dead.*  It  was  the  first 

*  Charlotte  Bronte. 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DAYS.  511 

news  I  heard  here,  and  we  read  many  of  her  letters  in  the 
evening.  .  .  .  Two  nieces  are  with  Miss  M.,  instructed 
by  Dr.  Latham  how  to  treat  her  ;  so  she  sees  no  doctor.  Lear 
has  sent  her  all  his  sketches  from  Egypt  to  see,  and  the  Arnolds 
are  coming  to  see  them  this  afternoon.  I  walked  to  church  to 
Rydal,  and  sat  in  the  next  pew  to  old  Mrs.  Wordsworth ;  "  she 
was  a  phantom  of  delight."  This  place  is  pretty  in  all  its 
cheerless  weather ;  there  are  big  lines  of  snowdrifts  on  the  hills, 
and  mists  on  all  the  tops. 

Ambleslde,  Saturday. 

I  enclose  an  article  of  Miss  M/s  on  Miss  Berry,  which,  please, 
copy  at  your  leisure,  and  put  by  a  copy  of  it  on  quarto  paper. 
If  you  wish  to  see  an  excellent  article  she  has  written  on  poor 
"Jane  Eyre/'  get  the  Daily  News  of  Friday.  ...  I 
had  much  talk  with  Miss  M.  to-day  about  children.  She  main- 
tains that  the  natural  instinct,  if  properly  fostered,  enables  the 
mother  to  understand  the  child,  its  wants  and  ways,  its  thinkings 
and  feelings,  when  no  one  else  can  do  it,  and  that  this  even 
applies  to  very  inferior  women.  I  don't  know  what  to  say  to 
this. 


E.  M.  M.  to  C.  J.  MacCartJiy. 

London,  July  \§th,  1855. 

DEAR  FRIEND, — The  little  incidents  that  make  up  'the  full 
life  of  the  London  season  somehow  or  other  disincline  one  from 
writing  to  those  who  are  out  of  them.  Now  that  it  is  pretty 
well  over,  I  have  despatched  my  wife  and  child  into  the  country, 
and  I  am  going  to  Paris  to  see  the  Exposition  as  soon  as  the 
foolish  embroglio  of  home  politics  permits.  On  all  these  matters 
the  Times  tells  you  everything,  and  something  more — not  so  much 
more  as  to  render  the  everything  uncertain,  but  enough  to  show 
that  they  take  their  information  from  those  high  sources  which 
are  inaccurate  and  obscure.  Some  years  hence,  perhaps,  Lord 


512  THE    LIFE    OF  LORD    HOUGHTON. 

John's  conduct  at  Vienna  will  be  intelligible ;  it  is  now  laid  on 
Lady  Westmoreland,  just  as  his  escapades  in  domestic  politics 
are  laid  on  his  wife,  by  that  principle  of  justice  which  finds  in 
woman  the  only  key  to  the  enigmatic  proceedings  of  man.  As 
if  all  so-called  great  men  had  not  enough  folly  in  them  to 
account  for  themselves.  In  other  matters  Lord  Palmerston's 
Government  goes  on  well  and  safely;  his  appointments  are 
judicious,  singularly  unwarped  by  personal  favour,  and  only  a 
little  influenced  by  personal  despite.  Lord  Canning's  *  is  an 
experiment;  he  is  an  undemonstrative  man  who  has  hitherto 
done  well  all  he  has  had  to  do,  owing  of  course  a  great  deal  to 
his  name,  and  something  to  the  almost  discourteous  reserve  of 
his  manners,  which  approves  itself  to  our  leading  men  and  high 
life  in  general.  The  isolation  which  is  the  consequence  of  this 
has  damaged  his  character,  and  this  will  not  be  improved  by  the 
lonely  grandeur  of  his  Indian  position,  which  must  be  a  kind  of 
royal  hermitage. 

July  20th.  Last  night  the  Government  got  a  majority, 
mainly  composed  of  their  opponents,  which  keeps  them  safe 
until  the  next  meeting  of  Parliament.  Their  tenure  of  office 
really  hangs  upon  Sebastopol.  If  they  can  get  that,  or  half  of  it, 
they  will  keep  in.  A  new  volume  of  Tennyson  ("  Maud,"  &c.) 
is  in  the  press ;  I  have  read  it  with  much  pleasure,  but  I  do  not 
think  it  will  make  him  either  more  popular  or  more  famous. 
Did  you  read  the  "  Balaklava  Charge  "  ?  A  real  gallop  in  verse, 
and  only  good  as  such.  He  is  himself  much  healthier  and 
happier*than  he  used  to  be,  and  devoted  to  his  children,  who  are 

beautiful. 

Yours  affectionately, 

R.  M.  M. 

The  foregoing  letter  suggests  a  fact  which  I  have 
the  permission  of  Lord  Tennyson  to  state  here ;  that 
is,  that  on  the  marriage  of  the  great  poet  Milnes 

*  Lord  Canning  was  appointed  Govemor-Greneral  of  India. 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DAYS.  513 

offered  to  place  at  his  disposal  as  a  residence  for  life 
a  wing  of  the  house  at  Fryston.  The  offer,  I  need 
scarcely  say,  was  not  accepted,  though  it  was  urged  by 
Milnes  with  a  persistency  which  showed  how  much 
his  heart  was  set  upon  rendering  a  real  service  to  his 
friend. 

The  visit  to  Paris  duly  took  place  in  the  month  of 
July,  and  I  give  some  extracts  from  his  letters  to  his 
wife  whilst  he  was  in  the  French  capital. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  his  Wife. 

Boulogne,  Sunday  evening. 

A  fine  day  and  a  smooth  passage.  Spencer  Cowper  and  Mr. 
Sumner,  the  American,  fellow-passengers.  I  shall  drive  to  the 
Camp  to-morrow  morning,  and  go  to  Paris  in  the  middle  of  the 
day.  What  if  Lord  P.  was  to  dissolve  Parliament,  and  bring 
me  back  in  a  jiffey  !  He  is  in  sucb  a  pet  that  if  he  thought  he 
could  exclude  them  and  Bright  and  Cobden  from  Parliament,  he 
is  quite  capable  of  running  the  risk.  Layard  would  be  returned 
for  London,  and  every  Layardite  would  come  in.  Would  Lord 
P.  like  that? 


To  Ma  Father. 

Meurice's,  Paris,  July 

I  was  mucb  annoyed  at  finding  my  friend  Henry  Lushington 
dangerously  ill  at  the  hotel  next  to  this.  Venables  went  to  meet 
him  at  Marseilles,  and  brought  him  here  with  difficulty.  He  is 

too  ill  to  see  me,  and  I  should  doubt  his  recovery.    Madame 

will  gladly  do  your  commission,  to  the  best  of  her  power :  you 
could  not  have  got  a  better  person  for  it.  She  and  her  husband 
are  amazingly  Russian,  and  have  given  up  their  passion  for 


514  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   SOUGHT  ON. 

Austria  in  consequence  of  the  Emperor  having  behaved  so  ill  to 
his  benefactor.  She  told  me  of  a  Russian  shop  on  the  Boule- 
vards where  she  went  to  buy  pictures  of  Russian  saints,  and  gave 
me  a  book  to  read,  written  by  MentzchikofPs  doctor,  who  writes, 
"  Our  victory  on  the  Alma  mainly  served  us  to  gain  time." 
There  are  few  English  here,  a  world  of  Americans,  and  many 
other  foreigners.  I  dine  at  the  Walewskis*  on  Monday,  and 
intend  going  to  Vichy  on  Wednesday.  The  English  pictures 
are  quite  the  cream  of  the  Exhibition  ;  one  knows  them  all,  but 
never  saw  them  so  well  before.  ...  I  had  a  long  talk  with 
Lord  Cowley,  which  left  me  the  impression  that  he  had  to  a 
great  degree  checked  the  Emperor's  willingness  to  make  peace 
on  the  Austrian  proposal.  Do  not  repeat  this.  Love  to  the 
Aunties. 


To  his   Wife. 

Meurice's,  Tuesday. 

You  may  think  how  shocked  I  was  at  finding  dear  Henry 
Lushington  so  ill  that  there  is  little  hope  of  his  life.  He  came 
from  Malta  some  days  ago  with  his  physician,  and  it  seems 
doubtful  whether  he  can  move  home,  which  he  is  anxious  to  do. 
Poor  Venables  is  with  him,  tending  him  like  a  lover,  carrying 
him  about  in  his  arms.  His  elder  brother  arrived  yesterday. 
All  this  blackens  this  bright  sky,  and  makes  my  visit  here  very 
gloomy.  I  had  a  long  talk  with  Lord  Cowley  yesterday,  in 
which  I  saw  how  warlike  his  tendencies  are,  and  how  he  wishes 
to  keep  up  the  Emperor  to  the  mark.  Madame  de  Lieven  was 
quite  delighted  to  find  how  pacific  I  was.  I  found  her  very 
agreeable,  and  so,  I  suppose,  made  myself  so.  Lady  Cowley 
has  been  dangerously  ill,  and  goes  to  Dieppe  to-day.  The  great 
question  in  agitation  is  whether  the  Emperor  should  meet  the 
Queen  at  Boulogne.  Lord  Cowley  thinks  he  ought ;  Walewski, 
that  it  is  not  consistent  with  his  dignity,  and  wishes  him  to 
send  Prince  Napoleon,  as  the  Queen  sent  Prince  Albert.  I 
dine  with  the  Walewskis  on  Monday,  and  by  that  time  this 


CRIMEAN   WAR   DAYS.  515 

awful  question  will,  perhaps,  be  arranged.  I  dined  with 
Spencer  Cowper  on  Tuesday,  and  found  Lady  Harriet  looking 
very  well,  but  very  triste.  9 

Paris,  July  24>tk. 

Dear  Harry  is  worse  and  worse,  and  there  is  hardly  a  gleam 
of  hope.  The  fallen  Minister  [M.  Drouyn  de  Lhuys]  was,  as 
usual  in  such  cases,  much  more  communicative  and  interesting 
than  if  he  had  been  in  power.  He  evidently  thinks  a  continuance 
of  the  war  will  be  the  ruin  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  cause  of 
much  evil  to  France.  The  French  have  now  taken  to  accuse  us 
of  conducting  the  war  with  unnecessary  cruelty,  and  say  we  are 
burning  helpless  villages,  and  killing  women  and  children  on 
the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  1  ...  I  have  seen  a  good  many 
people  here  of  all  opinions,  but  they  agree  in  one  thing — in 
detesting  the  war ;  some  for  its  cause,  and  all  for  its  management. 
The  peasants,  they  say,  are  getting  very  discontented  at  the  new 
conscription,  and  if  Lord  John  and  Drouyn  de  Lhuys  had  made 
peace  every  town  in  France  would  have  been  illuminated.  So 
much  for  our  sole  ally.  The  preparations  for  our  Queen  are 
immense.  All  St.  Cloud  is  to  be  covered  with  V.R/s,  and  the 
f£te  at  Versailles  to  be  wonderful. 

Meurice's,  Saturday. 

H.  Lushington  is  no  better ;  they  do  not  let  me  see  him,  and 
probably  I  shall  never  again.  I  somehow  or  other  think  of  those 
who  are  left,  rather  than  of  those  who  are  going ;  and  thus  I  feel 
more  for  Venables  than  for  himself.  It  has  been  the  best  and 
truest  friendship  I  have  ever  seen  in  life.  The  Emperor  has  gone 
to  the  sea  and  his  wife ;  so  I  am  not  exposed  to  be  corrupted  by 
any  of  the  Court  civilities  that  have  overcome  Charles  Greville 
and  Lady  A.  They  have  been  completely  subdued.  The  whole 
furniture  at  St.  Cloud  is  being  altered  so  as  to  have  the  English 
arms  and  "  Victoria  Regina "  stuck  all  over  it,  that  the  Queen 
may  think  she  is  quite  at  home.  ...  I  was  at  Madame 
MohFs  last  night,  and  met  Mrs.  Jameson,  who  has  not  been 
well.  The  conversation  was  free  enough  for  anything.  I  dine 


516  TEE   LIFE    OF   LOED    HOUGTITON. 

to-day  with  Merimee  and  some  artists.     They  have  made 

Member  of  the  Jury  of  Beaux  Arts  at  the  Exhibition.  I  asked 
Merimee  what  they  could  have  done  it  for.  He  said,  "  A  cause 
des  beaux  yeux  de  sa  fern  me."  An  excellent  reason.  It  is, 
seriously,  a  bad  piece  of  international  flunkeyism. 

Vichy,  August.  2nd,  1855. 

Of  course  I  did  not  write  to  you  about  the  Paris  Exhibition 
after  the  way  you  flouted  and  scouted  the  London  one.  At  this 
one,  indeed,  you  would  have  no  fear  of  being  knocked  about,  for 
it  is  comparatively  a  desert.  It  gave  me  a  strong  sense  of  lone- 
liness to  see  so  few  human  beings  in  the  midst  of  this  huge 
product  of  human  labour.  Details,  arrangement,  &c.,  are  much 
better  than  ours — most  of  the  stalls  being  in  red  velvet,  and 
some  quite  architectural ;  but  there  is  nothing  to  equal  the  sense 
of  vastness,  of  multiplicity,  which  ours  gave.  The  great  marvel 
among  the  works  of  art  is  the  exact  reproduction  of  the  Minerva 
of  the  Parthenon,  seven  feet  high,  in  ivory,  with  a  gold  tunic, 
bronze  helmet,  and  sapphire  eyes.  I  admire  it  much,  but  of 
course  it  is  thought  absurd  by  those  academic  people.  The  rail 
from  Paris  yesterday  was  overpoweringly  hot,  the  country  pretty 
and  diversih'ed,  the  crop  good,  but  the  potatoes,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
going  everywhere.  Lord  Boden  was  in  the  same  carriage. 

Vichy,  Friday. 

As  I  have  got  two  letters  from  you  to-day,  I  must  write  in 
decency  before  I  go  to  sleep.  There  can  be  no  egotism  in  your 
writing  of  yourself  to  me;  it  is  either  dualism  or  thinking  on 
paper.  I  have  not  got  "  Maud/'  and  only  heard  it  that  morning 
in  his  own  fine  undersong,  but  it  did  not  make  on  me  the 
impression  of  raising  Tennyson.  I  don't  know  why  we  should 
expect  a  great  writer  to  be  always  rising,  but  somehow  it  is  so. 
I  did  not  read  the  Idyll  which  Alfred's  own  friends  think  the 
prime  of  the  volume.  I  am  afraid  that  if  I  ever  really  become 
a  public  man,  we  shall  have  to  give  up  our  present  independent 
and,  I  may  say,  contemplative  London  life,  and  not  have  time 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DATS.  517 

for  talk  of  books  and  men  as  we  have  now.  Who  should  arrive 
to-day  but  Fonblanque  of  the  Examiner,  quite  an  acquisition  he 
will  be.  ...  I  wish  you  could  get  Gladstone  to  Crewe  the 
first  week  in  September.  You  would  then  see  (which  you  do 
not  now)  where  we  agree  and  where  we  differ. 

Vichy,  August.  8£A. 

I  enclose  you  my  doctor's  prescription,  which  will  enlighten 
you  much.  It  has  made  me  very  hungry  for  breakfast,  but  had 
little  effect  otherwise  ;  if  it  brings  me  to  good  health — that  is,  if 
it  enables  me  to  use  my  limbs  without  fatigue,  to  eat  and  drink 
without  disagreeable  effects,  and  to  keep  my  head  always  clear, 
so  as  to  make  the  most  of  the  little  there  is  in  it — I  shall  be  very 
glad,  as  this  place  is  handier,  pleasanter,  and  sociabler  than  the 
German  Baden,  and  Amicia  can  flirt  with  the  Zouave  officers, 
and  you  keep  up  your  French,  while  I  am  keeping  off  the  gout 
in  coming  years.  Your  picture  of  Amy  running  about  the  lawn 
at  Madeley  quite  haunted  me. 

Vichy,  Monday. 

As  I  may  be  busy  in  Paris  for  a  day  or  two  I  write  to  acknow- 
ledge yours  of  the  17th.  I  am  much  relieved  by  the  successful 
repulse  of  the  Russians  on  the  Tchernaya,  for  I  had  seen 
letters  expressing  great  fear  that  the  Sardinians  would  not  be 
able  to  hold  it,  and  that,  when  forced,  it  would  open  the  way 
to  Balaklava.  They  were  by  no  means  strong  for  the  length 
of  the  position.  The  Queen's  entrance  into  Paris  was  a  most 
melancholy  failure.  She  does  not  require  usually  to  be  tfld  that 
"Inexactitude  est  la  politesse  des  rois,"  and  yet  surely  there 
ought  to  have  been  more  margin  given  for  the  voyage  from 
Osborne.  It  would  have  been  better  if  she  had  come  later, 
for  then  the  Boulevards  would  have  been  lit  up ;  but  as  it 
was,  she  could  see  nothing,  and  the  people  could  not  see  her. 
There  must  have  been  above  a  million  of  people  thoroughly 
disappointed.  The  gay  dresses  and  the  beautiful  flowers  all 
invisible.  The  French  say, "  Elle  est  entree  comme  une  chauve- 
souris."  It  will  take  much  to  change  this  bad  impression. 


518  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD   SOUGHTON. 

I  have  left  most   of   the  lions  of  this  neighbourhood  unseen, 
that  I  may  go  to  them  some  other  time  with  you. 

Paris,  Sunday. 

You  are  right  in  supposing  one  lives  in  a  row  here ;  it  is 
impossible  not  to  do  so.  The  fetes  have  been  magnificent — indeed, 
frightfully  so,  when  one  thinks  of  the  labour  and  the  cost.  At 
the  Hotel  de  Ville  there  was  enough  of  temporary  preparation  to 
have  built  a  palace,  and  the  lighting  alone  of  Versailles  cost 
£4,000.  The  latter  was  as  grand  as  a  festival  could  be  with 
no  woman  of  distinguished  appearance,  and  no  man  except  two 
novel-writers  one  had  ever  heard  of  before.  En  revanche  there 
was  Mr.  Webb  from  Bond  Street,  and  Mr.  Macdonald  of  the 
Times — both  in  official  costume.  I  rode  with  the  staff  at  the 
review,  which  must  have  made  the  Queen  think  there  were  still 
French  soldiers  enough  left  to  continue  the  war  as  long  as  she 
pleased.  The  said  Queen  looks  very  happy.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  has  a  nice  natural  manner,  and  is  much  improving  in  looks. 
Vernon  Smith  has  been  as  cross  as  two  sticks  at  not  having 
been  asked  to  dinner  at  Court.  When  I  heard  of  it,  I  spoke  to 
Walewski,  and  got  him  invited  to  the  private  dinner  to-day.  I 
had  to  pay  £1  for  my  bed  at  Versailles  ;  so  the  people  are  making 
something  out  of  British  royalty.  If  she  has  a  fine  day  to- 
morrow her  departure  will  be  very  striking.  I  may  possibly  not 
get  to  England  till  Friday  night,  as  M.  Guizot  is  coming  to 
Paris  for  a  day  on  Thursday,  and  I  should  like  to  see  him. 

Apropos  of  the  Queen's  visit  to  Paris,  and  Milnes's 
presence  there  on  the  occasion,  his  friend  MacCarthy,  in  a 
letter  written  in  the  following  January,  reports  that  Ver- 
non Smith  (Lord  Lyveden)  was  telling  how  he  (Milnes) 
had  been  seen  in  the  front  ranks  during  the  visit  among 
emperors  and  kings,  "  and  one  of  the  Pagets  dying  to 
put  him  to  death  on  the  spot  for  his  militia  uniform." 
Yernon  Smith,  in  telling  the  story,  added,  "It  is  to  be 


CRIMEAN    WAR    DATS.  519 

hoped  that  our  Richard  will  have  the  legitimate  entree 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  if  not,  he  will  certainly 
hustle  St.  Peter,  and  get  a  good  place  in  spite  of  him." 
It  was  shortly  after  returning  to  London  that  Milnes 
wrote  his  well-known  poem  entitled  "  A  Monument  for 
Scutari."  There  are  lines  in  that  poem  which  not  only 
deserve  to  live,  but  which  may  be  fitly  introduced  here 
because  of  their  bearing  on  the  events  of  the  time. 

Now  other  passion  rules  the  soul, 

And  Scutari's  familiar  name 
Arouses  thoughts  beyond  control — 

A  tangled  web  of  pride  and  shame. 
No  more  shall  that  fair  word  recall 

The  Moslem  and  his  Asian  rest, 
But  the  dear  brothers  of  us  all 

Rent  from  their  mother's  bleeding  breast 

Calmly  our  warriors  moulder  there, 

Uncoffined  in  the  sandy  soil ; 
Once  festered  in  the  sultry  glare, 

Or  wasted  in  the  wintry  toil 
No  verdure  on  those  graves  is  seen, 

No  shade  obstructs  the  garish  day ; 
The  tender  dews  to  keep  them  green 

Are  wept,  alas  !  too  far  away. 

Masters  of  form,  if  such  be  now, 

On  sense  and  powers  of  art  intent, 
To  match  this  mount  of  serious  brow 

Devise  your  seemliest  monument — 
One  that  will  symbolise  the  cause 

For  which  this  might  of  manhood  fell, 
Obedience  to  their  country's  laws, 

Duty  to  God's  truth  as  well. 


520  THE   LIFE    OF  LORD   HOUGHTON. 

Let,  too,  the  old  Miltonic  Muse 

That  trumpeted  "  the  scattered  bones 
Of  saints  on  Alpine  mountains/'  use 

Reveille  of  forgotten  tones. 
Till  some  one  worthy  to  he  priest 

At  this  high  altar  of  renown, 
May  write  in  tongues  of  West  and  East, 

Who  bore  this  cross,  who  won  this  crown. 

Write  that  'tis  Britain's  peaceful  sons 

Luxurious  rich,  well  tended  poor, 
Fronted  the  foeman's  steel  and  guns, 

As  each  would  guard  his  household  door ; 
So,  in  those  ghastly  halls  of  pain 

Where  thousand  hero-sufferers  lay, 
Some  smiled  in  thought  to  fight  again, 

And  most  unmurmuring  passed  away. 

Write  that  when  pride  of  human  skill 

Fell  prostrate  with  the  weight  of  care, 
And  men  prayed  out  for  some  strong  will, 

Some  reason  'mid  the  wild  despair, 
The  loving  heart  of  woman  rose 

To  guide  the  hand  and  clear  the  eye, 
Gave  help  amid  the  sternest  woes, 

And  saved  what  man  had  left  to  die. 

Milnes  sent  the  poem  to  the  editor  of  the  Times, 
who  published  it  in  that  journal. 

Mr.  Delane  to  R.  M.  M. 

Serjeants'  Inn,  Sept.  $th,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  MILNES, — Nothing  could  be  more  welcome 
than  the  beautiful  lines  with  which  you  embellish  our  otherwise 
dreary  columns.  They  will  shine  with  the  more  lustre  from 
among  the  gloomy  record  of  "  battle,  murder,  and  sudden 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DAYS.  521 

death"  which  is  now  our  staple  commodity,  and  which 
has  been  so  long  unrelieved  by  a  single  gleam  of  success. 
Actually,  as  I  write,  news  comes  of  our  second  failure  at  the 
Redan,  and  the  French  successes  at  the  Malakhoff.  We  shall 
lose  as  much  character  by  the  victories  of  our  allies  as  by  the 
resistance  of  our  enemies.  I  hope  to  find  time  soon  for  a  few 
days5  rest  after  twelve  months'  incessant  work,  but  shall  probably 
be  back  in  town  again  before  you  come  up. 

Believe  me 

Very  faithfully  yours, 
J.  T.  DELANE. 

Mr.   Gladstone  to  R.  M.  M. 

Hawarden,  Oct.  \$th,  1855. 

MY  DEAR  MILNES, — Many  thanks  for  your  beautiful  verses. 
I  am  delighted  to  see  your  Muse  in  such  pliancy  and  vigour.  It 
did  not  enter  into  your  work  as  a  poet,  but  I  wish  some  one  of 
the  thousand  who  in  prose  justly  celebrate  Miss  Nightingale 
would  say  a  single  word  for  the  man  of  "  routine  "  who  devised 
and  projected  her  going — Sidney  Herbert.  .  .  . 

In  September  Milnes  went  to  Glasgow  to  attend  a 
meeting  of  the  British  Association.  For  many  years 
he  had  delighted  in  these  gatherings  of  the  scientific 
men  of  the  day,  and  in  no  part  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
meetings  did  he  take  greater  pleasure  than  in  those  gro- 
tesque festivities  of  the  Bed  Lion  Club,  upon  which  the 
eyes  of  the  vulgar  are  not  permitted  to  gaze.  Men  of 
learning  and  genius,  when  they  play,  as  a  rule  play  with 
all  their  hearts ;  but  it  is  not  always  the  case  that  a 
man  of  the  world  like  Milnes — well  versed  in  the  ways 
of  society — can  cast  aside  conventional  ideas,  and  enjoy 


523  THE   LIFE    OF   LORD  HOUGHTON. 

himself  as  heartily  in  the  simulated  buffoonery  of  an 
association  like  that  of  the  Red  Lions  with  all  the 
heartiness  of  a  child  of  nature.  This,  however,  is  what 
Milnes  could  do ;  and  no  one  who  ever  saw  him  taking 
part  in  the  proceedings  of  a  Bed  Lion  dinner  can  have 
forgotten  the  zest  with  which  he  threw  himself  into  the 
eccentric  ceremonials  of  the  Club,  the  wit  and  good- 
humour  with  which  he  added  life  to  the  proceedings. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  his  Wife. 
Queen's  Hotel,  Glasgow,  Wednesday,  Sept.,  1855. 

I  have  been  very  busy,  or  would  have  written  before  this ; 
but  I  am  now  going  to  dine  with  the  Provost,  and  can  only  say 
I  am  quite  well,  and  have  got  well  lodged.  The  section  I 
preside  over  has  got  many  very  interesting  papers,  and  the  whole 
meeting  promises  to  be  a  good  one,  although  the  townspeople, 
who  owe  their  very  existence  as  a  city  to  scientific  discovery, 
will  probably  take  just  as  little  interest  in  the  matter  as  Liver- 
pool did.  ...  I  like  "  Paul  Ferrol "  extremely,  and  should 
have  been  very  proud  if  you  had  written  it ;  you  see  how  well 
Janet  turns  out,  from  not  being  too  much  made  of.  The  main 
story  is  capital ;  there  is  a  little  clumsiness  in  the  details. 

Thursday. 

I  send  you  the  Duke's  [Duke  of  Argyll's]  speech.  It  was 
gracefully  and  naturally  delivered,  although  he  looked  very  ill. 
The  Provost  gave  us  a  splendid  dinner,  and  I  am  none  the  worse 
for  it — the  turtle  or  the  speech — and  this  notwithstanding  that 
the  pole  of  the  carriage  in  which  I  and  Lord  Eglinton  were  going 
to  the  meeting  was  broken,  and  the  horses  kicked  like  mad. 
We  scrambled  out  as  well  as  we  could,  and  an  ingenious  thief 
managed  to  steal  the  cloak  off  Lord  Eglinton's  arm ;  this  was  all 
the  harm  done.  I  hope  to  go  to  Carstairs  on  Saturday;  and  if  I 


CEIMEAN    WAR    DAYS.  523 

do  not  go  to  York,  I  shall  go  to  Keir  on  Wednesday  till  Satur- 
day. I  shall  then  go  straight  to  Fryston. 

Monday. 

Monteith  desired  me  to  come  to  Glasgow  to-day  in  a  third- 
class  carriage  as  a  penance,  which  I  might  have  done  had  I  not 

met  Mrs. ,  whose  company  I  much  preferred  to  the  moral 

lesson.  We  were  only  nine  at  breakfast  yesterday  morning,  and 
we  went  to  four  different  places  of  worship — a  beautiful  illustra- 
tion of  religious  liberty.  Monteith,  Garden,  Brookfield,  and 
myself,  had  a  quantity  of  four-sided  talk,  and  many  old  events 
got  up  and  walked  and  talked  before  us,  not  without  much 
laughter,  even  until  two  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

Glasgow,  Wednesday. 

I  go  to  Keir*  this  afternoon.  I  intend  to  go  to  Edinburgh 
on  Monday,  and  to  Fryston  on  Tuesday.  The  Shaw  Stewarts, 
Baillie  Cochranes,  &c.,  have  been  very  pressing  in  their 
hospitality,  but  I  must  put  them  off  a  while.  There  was  a 
great  dinner  yesterday — above  two  thousand,  with  the  novelty  of 
ladies  present,  all  well  dressed,  and  the  whole  thing  very  pretty ; 
but,  as  I  always  tell  you  disagreeable  things,  I  must  say  I  was 
quite  annoyed  at  being  called  up  to  speak  without  a  moment's 
preparation,  for  I  was  in  good  voice,  and  with  an  hour's  notice 
could  have  made  a  much  more  telling  speech  than  was  made  by 
any  one  else.  My  luck,  dear,  you  know.  I  sometimes  fancy 
that  the  Destinies  know  very  well  that  public  life  is  not  the 
thing  for  me,  and  thus  in  all  little,  but  effective,  ways  check  any 
progress  I  might  make  in  it.  I  begin  to  think  they  are  right. 
I  remember  Sydney  Smith  saying,  "  How  few  men  are  on  the 
right  rail  ! "  When  you  have  continual  collisions,  you  should, 
perhaps,  infer  that  you  are  on  the  wrong  one.  Monteith  said 
some  one  was  much  affronted  that  the  Irish  were  excluded  from 
my  "  Scutari."  I  must  see  if  I  can  make  a  verse  for  them,  but 
it  is  by  no  means  easy.  Should  they  not  be  content  with  the 
common  Briton? 

«  The  seat  of  Sir  William  Stirling. 


524  THE   LIFE    OF  i^ORD    HOUGHTON. 

Keir,  Thursday. 

There  is  little  alteration  in  this  beautiful  place,  except  balus- 
trades along  all  the  terraces,  which  dress  them  up  very  much. 
I  have  the  room  over  the  library  with  that  fine  hill-view. 
Monteith  said  to  me  that  he  thought,  of  all  our  Cambridge 
contemporaries,  he  and  I  had  got  the  most  delightful  wives.  My 
father,  you  know,  always  pretends  that  he  prevented  me  from 

marrying  Mrs. ,  which  has  just  enough  foundation  in  truth 

to  seem  very  absurd  to  me  now. 

After  leaving  Scotland  Milnes  went  to  Crewe  Hall, 
the  residence  of  his  brother-in-law,  and  remained  there 
for  some  time.  In  October  he  went  over  to  Hawarden 
on  a  visit  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gladstone. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  his  Wife. 

Hawarden  Castle,  Sat.  evening. 

The  post  goes  out  to-morrow  at  some  unearthly  hour,  so  I 
must  write  to-night.  The  children  acted  Cinderella  this  evening 
in  French  very  nicely — Lady  Susan  Clinton  a  very  nice  Cinder- 
ella, and  the  Phillimore  children  the  bad  sisters.  The  Bishop 
of  Oxford  was  amused  at  my  saying  that,  amidst  all  these  pacifi- 
cators, I  felt  like  Daniel  in  the  den  of  lambs.  Gladstone  has 
been  reading  all  the  evening  the  pamphlet  I  brought  him  on  the 
last  hours  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  and  evidently  intends  to 
translate  it.  The  day  is  beautiful,  but  the  autumn  fast  speeding 
on,  with  a  clear  watery  distance.  ...  I  think  Florence 
[Nightingale]  always  much  distrusted  the  sisterhood  matter. 
She  said  one  day,  "  It  will  never  do  unless  we  have  a  Church  of 
which  the  terms  of  membership  shall  be  works,  not  doctrines." 

Crewe,  Sunday. 

I  find  Miss  Martineau  much  desires  to  see  me  again ;  I  shall 
therefore  go  there  [Amble^ide]  to-morrow ;  to  Fryston  on 


.  CRIMEAN    WAR   DAYS.  525 

Wednesday  to  meet  my  aunts;  and  to  London  Friday  or 
Saturday.  Do  you  know,  I  am  so  haunted  about  Sir  J.  Paul* 
and  Co/s  transportation  that  I  can  think  of  nothing  else.  If 
men  of  that  standing  in  the  world,  of  knowledge  and  business 
habits,  are  to  fall  before  temptation  like  a  silly  housemaid 
attracted  by  a  jewel,  the  foundations  of  moral  life  tremble 
beneath  one,  and  Paul  Ferroll  or  anything  else  becomes  possible. 

tells  me  he  has  a  cousin  who  a   few  years  ago — in  the 

railway  days — did  much  the  same  thing,  and  incurred  the  same 
horrible  fate.  I  still  stick  to  my  notion  that  Lord  John  will 
be  Colonial  Secretary.  Gladstone  shakes  his  head  most 
judgmatically  over  the  notion  of  Vernon  Smith.  They  are 
all  much  interested  here  about  the  Bishop  of  London,  thinking 
it  possible  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield  will  succeed  him. 


Fryston,  Thursday. 

Got  here  in  good  time  by  a  beautiful  railroad  through  the 
picturesque  Yorkshire,  which  I  mean  to  travel  through  when  I 
have  done  the  United  States.  Caroline  [his  aunt,  Miss  Caroline 
Milnes]  is  looking  no  better,  but  seems  less  of  an  invalid,  so 
that  I  may  keep  a  little  longer  on  earth  the  one  relative  that 
knows  anything  about  me.  She  says  that  if  America  and 
England  do  come  to  war,  I  shall  be  responsible,  having  sent 
G.  M.  to  Philadelphia.  I  say  it  is  all  Lord  Clarendon's  fault 
for  not  having  given  him  a  mission  in  Europe.  ...  I 
left  Miss  Martineau  nearly  insensible,  and  hope  she  may  soon 
pass  away  without  more  suffering.  But  with  all  her  illness 
she  writes  three  times  a  week,  in  the  Daily  News,  admirable 
articles.  What  vigour  and  spirit  this  shows  !  At  Scarborough 
they  have  shipwrecks  under  their  windows,  so,  I  suppose,  you 
will  soon  rush  inland. 


*  Sir  John  Dean  Paul,  the  banker,  and  his  partners,  Messrs.  Strahan 
and  Bates  were  sentenced  to  14  years'  transportation,  Oct.  27th. 


526  THE   LIFE   OF  LOUD   HOUQHTON. 

T.  Carlyle  to  R.  M.  M. 

Chelsea,  Oct.  29^,  1855. 

DEAR  MILNES, —  ....  It  will  much  beseem  you  to 
come  and  see  whether  I  am  dead  or  alive  here  after  so  many 
adventures,  and  the  sight  of  your  face  will  be  illuminative  to 
everybody  in  these  premises.  I  cannot  say  I  envy  you  your 
chaotic  convocations  at  Crewe,  but  I  should  like  well  to  go 
whither  my  letter  is  going,  could  I  travel  as  easily  and  were  the 
season  younger.  I  must  invade  Silesia  instead,  woe  is  me  !  A 
huge  "  republic  of  the  mediocrities ;  "  this  modern  world,  which, 
though  very  quiet,  is  a  dreadful  and  even  damnable  fact  if  you 
will  think  of  it  well.  The  Johnson's  god-daughter  case  [god- 
daughters of  Dr.  Johnson]  is  to  come  into  the  Times  after  all, 
Palmerstonian  bounty  proving  ineffectual.  There  is  no  other 
course  for  behoof  of  the  poor  old  creatures.  In  the  pettiest 
German  Duchy,  in  Saxe-Meiningen  or  Lippe-Buckeburg,  had 
any  of  these  territories  been  honoured  to  produce  a  Johnson, 
the  Government  would  have  been  so  much  a  gentleman  as  to 
do  this  thing.  In  enormous  pot-bellied  England  it  is  otherwise, 
and  there  is  no  remedy  to  be  dreamt  of  at  present.  Adieu, 
dear  Milnes,  I  must  not  waste  my  own  small  fragment  of  time, 
nor  any  more  of  yours,  to-day.  Come  and  see  me  next  week, 
according  to  your  charitable  purpose.  We  send  all  our  regards 
to  Mrs.  Milnes,  and  beg  you  to  take  care  of  her. 

Yours  very  truly, 

T.  CARLYLE. 

Milnes  went  on  a  round  of  visits  later  in  the  year. 

Extracts  from  Letters  to  his  Wife. 

Leahurst,  Friday. 

Got  here  to  a  "heavy  tea."  Madame  Mohl  and  Miss 
Bathurst  the  only  company,  but  the  Coltmans  coming  to- 
morrow. There  was  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Smith,  saying  nothing 


CRIMEAN    WAR   DAYS.  527 

about  Flo's  [Miss  Nightingale's]  going  to  the  Crimea  ;  but  they 
think  she  is  gone  to  organise  the  new  hospitals  there,  and  that 
she  is  not  recovered  to  be  up  to  it. 

Worsley,  Thursday. 

Nothing  could  be  pleasanter  than  the  Grange.  Madame 
Mohl  as  amusing  as  the  best  Parisian,  full  of  information  and 
esprit,  and  that  pleasant  spirit  of  contradiction  and  unargumen- 
tative  argument  which  makes  lively  conversation.  She  is 
coming  through  town,  and  hopes  to  see  Miss  Wynn,  who,  I  think, 
appreciates  her.  I  am  quite  annoyed  that  the  Procters  should 
have  been  all  the  summer  at  Matlock  without  knowing  the 
Nightingales.  It  is  one  of  those  inconsideratenesses  with  which 
I  am  continually  reproaching  myself,  and  which  I  do  not  cure. 
Lady  Ellesmere's  letter  missed  me  altogether,  although  directed 
as  I  desired  j  this  happens  so  seldom.  I  am  glad  I  came,  as 
Lord  E.  is  very  low,  having  had  a  bad  attack  of  gout  in  both 
hands,  and  very  glad  of  reasonable  conversation. 

Manchester,  Thursday  evening. 

You  will  be  amused  at  this  date.  Mrs.  Gaskell  asked  me  to 
come  and  look  over  Miss  Bronte's  papers,  dine,  and  sleep.  I 
have  done  the  two  former,  and,  before  I  do  the  last,  wish  you 
good-night.  I  shall  go  to  Crewe  to-morrow  afternoon.  Lady 
Ellesmere  was  very  funny  about  Mrs.  Gaskell,  wanting  very 
much  to  know  her,  and  yet  quite  shy  about  it,  so  I  settled  the 
matter  by  making  her  ask  them  to  lunch  at  Worsley's  next 
week,  and  bringing  the  note  myself. 

During  the  autumn  and  winter  Milnes  was  much 
engaged  in  connection  with  the  Nightingale  Fund,  and 
both  in  London  and  at  Manchester  he  addressed  meet- 
ings on  behalf  of  a  cause  which  enlisted  every  sympathy 
of  his  heart. 

END    OF    VOL.    1. 


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